English homophones

Christmas/Xmas

"Christmas" (#1,297 written frequency) beats "Xmas" (#21,118) in this 2-word /ˈkɹɪsməs/ cluster. Size rank #133 of 1,007 English groups.

Data vintage

Frequency splits the cluster

These 2 spellings keep the same /ˈkɹɪsməs/ reading, but written frequency splits them hard: "Christmas" leads at #1,297, with "Xmas" trailing at #21,118.

Spelling pairs in this cluster

  • No shared spelling stem: "Christmas" is 9 letters, "Xmas" is 4; only the sound ties them.

Orthographic DNA of this cluster

Shared letters across Christmas, Xmas: ams. Private letters are the ones only one spelling owns: the eye's fastest tell once sound is out of the picture.

  • Christmas

    9 letters · 2 vowels · shape CCCVCCCVC

    Inventory achimrst · private chirt

  • Xmas

    4 letters · 1 vowels · shape CCVC

    Inventory amsx · private x

Pick the spelling from the meaning

  • Write "Christmas" when you mean: A festival or holiday commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ and incorporating various Christian, pre-Christian, pagan, and secular cust…
  • Write "Xmas" when you mean: Abbreviation of Christmas.

Known mistypes of these spellings

Edit-distance variants recorded against this cluster: useful when a search or OCR feed lands on the wrong form.

  • Christmascchristmas · chhristmas · chirstmas · chrismtas · chrisstmas · christams
  • Xmasmxas · xams · xmass · xmmas · xmsa · xxmas

Each spelling

Christmas

name · /ˈkɹɪsməs/ · #1,297 frequency

A festival or holiday commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ and incorporating various Christian, pre-Christian, pagan, and secular customs, which in Western Christianity is celebrated on December 25 (Christmas Day) in most places.

Xmas

name · /ˈkɹɪs.məs/ · #21,118 frequency

Abbreviation of Christmas.

Nearby English homophone groups

What to do next

You've reviewed the 2-spelling cluster (Christmas, Xmas). Here's where to go from here.

  • "Christmas" is the most frequent headword in this 2-spelling cluster (rank #1,297 in English). Full entry
  • Among English homophone groups, a cluster of 2 spellings ranks #133 by size (1,007 groups in this vintage). Corpus statistics
  • Explore a nearby 2-spelling cluster: cause · cores. Nearby cluster
  • Each spelling in "Christmas, Xmas" has its own headword page with definition, IPA, and misspelling variants. First entry

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list