coxvscupConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#19,493
“cox” frequency rank
#8,225
“cup” frequency rank
27718
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cox cup
Definition Variété de pommier. Cup menstruelle.

Where the eye mixes cox and cup

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

3 ch
cox
3 ch
cup

Visual trap between cox and cup

A purely visual mix-up. cox (\koks\) and cup (\kœp\) 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 27718, 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\. cup is at rank #8,225, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kœp\.

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 27718, this pair ranks #327,222 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cox vs cup

Shared letters: c. Private to "cox": ox. Private to "cup": pu.

"cox" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "cup" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cox" and "cup" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\koks\ versus \kœp\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cox" vs "cup" - which ranks higher?
"cup" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,225 in our French list, against #19,493 for "cox". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "cox" and "cup" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cox" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cup" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #327,222 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cox" and "cup" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCE vs cox". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #327,222 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