corevscourtWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: core is a noun, court is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“core” is a noun and “court” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#9,649
“core” frequency rank
#14,107
“court” frequency rank
23756
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature core court
Definition núcleo de processamento curto, breve, rápido

Where the eye mixes core and court

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. core runs 4 letters (CVCV) against court's 5 (CVVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
core
5 ch
court

Why the eye confuses core with court

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: core is ˈkɔ.ɾɪ/ while court is /kuʁ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23756, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

core is recorded at frequency rank #9,649, classified as anoun, pronounced ˈkɔ.ɾɪ/. court is at rank #14,107, tagged as anadj, pronounced /kuʁ/.

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 23756, this pair ranks #46,011 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of core vs court

Shared letters: cor. Private to "core": e. Private to "court": tu.

"core" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "court" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • core ← ccore · coer · corre · croe · ocre
  • court ← ccourt · corut · courrt · courtt · coutr · cuort · ocurt

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "core" and "court" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "core" is a noun and "court" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "core" or "court"?
"core" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,649 in our Portuguese list, against #14,107 for "court". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "core" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "court" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #46,011 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "core" and "court" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "codex vs core". 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 #46,011 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list