Which to use
“came” and “come” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #294
- “came” frequency rank
- #161
- “come” frequency rank
- 455
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | came | come |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past of come | To move nearer to the point of perspective. |
Where the eye mixes came and come
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. came (/keɪm/) and come (/kʌm/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - a in “came” becomes o in “come”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 455, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
came is recorded at frequency rank #294, classified as averb, pronounced /keɪm/. come is at rank #161, tagged as averb, pronounced /kʌm/.
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 455, this pair ranks #529,384 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of came vs come
Shared letters: cem. Private to "came": a. Private to "come": o.
"came" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "come" · 4 letters · shape CVCV