camivscumsTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#48,646
“cami” frequency rank
#45,869
“cums” frequency rank
94515
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cami cums
Definition A camisole. third-person singular simple present indicative of cum

Where the eye mixes cami and cums

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. cami (CVCV) and cums (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
cami
4 ch
cums

Visual trap between cami and cums

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cami is /ˈkæmi/ while cums is /kʌmz/. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 94515, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cami is recorded at frequency rank #48,646, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkæmi/. cums is at rank #45,869, tagged as averb, pronounced /kʌmz/.

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 94515, this pair ranks #1,339 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cami vs cums

Shared letters: cm. Private to "cami": ai. Private to "cums": su.

"cami" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cums" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cami ← acmi · caim · cammi · ccami · cmai
  • cums ← ccums · cmus · cumms · cumss · cusm · ucms

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cami" for "cums" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cami" is a noun and "cums" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "cami" or "cums"?
"cums" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #45,869 in our English list, against #48,646 for "cami". 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 "cami" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cums" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,339 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cami" and "cums" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cami vs coms". 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 #1,339 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list