codedvscomeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: coded is a adjective, come is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“coded” is an adjective and “come” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,305
“coded” frequency rank
#161
“come” frequency rank
13466
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coded come
Definition Encoded; written in code or cipher. To move nearer to the point of perspective.

Where the eye mixes coded and come

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
coded
4 ch
come

Look-alike desk: coded vs come

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: coded is /ˈkəʊ.dəd/ while come is /kʌm/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13466, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coded is recorded at frequency rank #13,305, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈkəʊ.dəd/. 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 13466, this pair ranks #475,626 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of coded vs come

Shared letters: ceo. Private to "coded": d. Private to "come": m.

"coded" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "come" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • codedccoded · cdoed · codded · codedd · coedd · ocded
  • comeccome · cmoe · coem · comme · ocme

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "coded" for "come" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "coded" is an adjective and "come" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "coded" or "come"?
"come" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #161 in our English list, against #13,305 for "coded". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "coded" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "come" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #475,626 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coded" and "come" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coded vs cower". 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 #475,626 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