coxvsculWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“cox” and “cul” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#19,493
“cox” frequency rank
#999
“cul” frequency rank
20492
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cox cul
Definition Variété de pommier. Derrière d’un animal, d’un humain, ses fesses, son postérieur.

Where the eye mixes cox and cul

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
cox
3 ch
cul

Visual trap between cox and cul

A purely visual mix-up. cox (\koks\) and cul (\ky\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20492, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cox is recorded at frequency rank #19,493, classified as anoun, pronounced \koks\. cul is at rank #999, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ky\.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 20492, this pair ranks #368,010 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cox vs cul

Shared letters: c. Private to "cox": ox. Private to "cul": lu.

"cox" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "cul" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cox" and "cul" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (\koks\ versus \ky\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cox" vs "cul" - which ranks higher?
"cul" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #999 in our French list, against #19,493 for "cox". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cox" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cul" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #368,010 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cox" and "cul" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCE vs cox". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #368,010 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list