Which to use
“cobra” and “comma” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,721
- “cobra” frequency rank
- #20,315
- “comma” frequency rank
- 35036
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cobra | comma |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Any of various venomous snakes of the genus Naja. | The punctuation mark ⟨,⟩ used to indicate a set of parts of a sentence or between elements of a list. |
Where the eye mixes cobra and comma
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between cobra and comma
A purely visual mix-up. cobra (/ˈkəʊbɹə/) and comma (/ˈkɒmə/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35036, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cobra is recorded at frequency rank #14,721, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkəʊbɹə/. comma is at rank #20,315, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɒmə/.
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 35036, this pair ranks #315,433 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cobra vs comma
Shared letters: aco. Private to "cobra": br. Private to "comma": m.
"cobra" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "comma" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cobra" and "comma" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "cobra" vs "comma" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "cobra" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "comma" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #315,433 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cobra" and "comma" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "comma 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 #315,433 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.