charmsvschumsWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“charms” and “chums” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#14,085
“charms” frequency rank
#46,980
“chums” frequency rank
61065
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature charms chums
Definition plural of charm plural of chum

Where the eye mixes charms and chums

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
charms
5 ch
chums

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. charms (/t͡ʃɑɹmz/) and chums (/t͡ʃʌmz/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61065, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

charms is recorded at frequency rank #14,085, classified as anoun, pronounced /t͡ʃɑɹmz/. chums is at rank #46,980, tagged as anoun, pronounced /t͡ʃʌmz/.

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 61065, this pair ranks #96,496 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of charms vs chums

Shared letters: chms. Private to "charms": ar. Private to "chums": u.

"charms" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCC  ·  "chums" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • charmscahrms · ccharms · chamrs · charmms · charmss · charrms · charsm · chharms
  • chumscchums · chhums · chmus · chumms · chumss · chusm · cuhms · hcums

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "charms" and "chums" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/t͡ʃɑɹmz/ versus /t͡ʃʌmz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "charms" or "chums"?
"charms" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,085 in our English list, against #46,980 for "chums". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "charms" and "chums". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "charms" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chums" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #96,496 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "charms" and "chums" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chums 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

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