What does cour mean?
A cour is a unit of television broadcasting used chiefly in anime fandom and industry commentary, denoting a continuous run of roughly three months of weekly episodes — conventionally 11 to 13 in total. The term entered English from Japanese usage, which itself borrowed the French word 'cours' (a court or courtyard), and it fills a practical gap: many anime series are planned and released in these quarterly blocks rather than in the longer seasons familiar from Western television. A show described as 'two cour' therefore runs about half a year, while a 'split cour' airs its first block, pauses, and resumes later. Outside discussions of Japanese animation the word is rarely encountered, but within that community it is standard, neutral vocabulary — neither slang nor jargon so much as a convenient technical measure of programme length.
nounIn modern English usage, a 'cour' is a broadcast block of roughly three months of consecutive weekly episodes of an anime or other television series, typically amounting to 11–13 episodes. The term is borrowed directly from French, where 'cour' means a court or courtyard.
- A broadcast block of approximately three months (typically 11–13 consecutive weekly episodes) of an anime series; multiple cours may form a single continuous series.
- (French) A court, courtyard, or yard.
"The new fantasy anime will run for two cour, with the second half airing next spring."
"The studio announced that the adaptation would span a full cour of twelve episodes."
"After a split-cour release, the second half resumed in April to strong ratings."
The plural 'cours' follows the French model, but in casual fan writing the word is often left unchanged after numerals, e.g. 'a two cour series'. Both forms are understood.
"Many long-running manga adaptations are planned across multiple cours rather than a single broadcast block."
Anime fans borrowed a French word for 'courtyard' to measure TV time — one cour is literally one quarter of a year of episodes.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of cour
The English word 'cour' comes from French 'cours', meaning a court or enclosed yard, itself derived from Latin 'cohors' (stem 'cohort-'), an enclosure or courtyard. Japanese broadcasters adopted the term as 'kūru' (クール) to label quarterly programming blocks, and English-speaking anime fans then borrowed it back in the sense of a roughly thirteen-episode broadcast run. Its deeper root, 'cohors', also gives English words such as 'court', 'courtesy', and 'cohort'.
How cour is actually used
'Cour' is a specialist term used almost entirely within anime and manga fandom and industry discussion. It is not found in general-purpose English conversation. Fans typically specify length as 'one cour', 'two cour', or in hyphenated attributive forms like 'a two-cour series'. Because it derives from French, some speakers pronounce it closer to /kuːr/.
Easily confused with cour
'Core' means the central or most essential part of something, while 'cour' refers to a three-month broadcast block of episodes and is used almost exclusively in anime fandom.
'Cor' is a British informal exclamation of surprise, whereas 'cour' is a noun denoting a seasonal run of television episodes.