kongvskoolWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#5,357
“kong” frequency rank
#38,884
“kool” frequency rank
44241
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature kong kool
Definition Carré de quatre tuiles identiques. Variante de kul.

Letter map: kong vs kool

Shared letters muted; letters that set kong and kool apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
kong
4 ch
kool

Pair insight - kong / kool

kong and kool are indexed as a confusable French pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44241, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

kong is recorded at frequency rank #5,357, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔ̃g\. kool is at rank #38,884, tagged as anoun.

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 44241, this pair ranks #211,989 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of kong vs kool

Shared letters: ko. Private to "kong": gn. Private to "kool": l.

"kong" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "kool" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • kongkkong · knog · kogn · kongg · konng · okng
  • koolkkool · kol · kolo · kooll · okol

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "kong" for "kool" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary French text, does "kong" or "kool" show up more?
"kong" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,357 in our French list, against #38,884 for "kool". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "kong" and "kool". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "kong" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "kool" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #211,989 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "kong" and "kool" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Kehl vs kool". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #211,989 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