comevscordWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: come is a verb, cord is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“come” is a verb and “cord” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#9,344
“come” frequency rank
#36,862
“cord” frequency rank
46206
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature come cord
Definition kommen längliches aus etwas zusammengedrehtes Ding, das beispielsweise als Gürtel getragen wird

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set come and cord apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
come
4 ch
cord

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: come is [kʌm] while cord is [kɔː(r)d]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46206, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

come is recorded at frequency rank #9,344, classified as averb, pronounced [kʌm]. cord is at rank #36,862, tagged as anoun, pronounced [kɔː(r)d].

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 46206, this pair ranks #1,326,948 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of come vs cord

Shared letters: co. Private to "come": em. Private to "cord": dr.

"come" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cord" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • comeccome · cmoe · coem · comme · ocme
  • cordccord · codr · cordd · corrd · crod · ocrd

Frequency comparison

come#9,344
cord#36,862

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "come" and "cord" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "come" is a verb and "cord" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "come" or "cord"?
"come" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,344 in our German list, against #36,862 for "cord". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering come vs cord

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “come”; for a noun, it's “cord”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “come” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list