Which to use
“come” is a verb and “copy” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #161
- “come” frequency rank
- #1,752
- “copy” frequency rank
- 1913
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | come | copy |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To move nearer to the point of perspective. | The result of copying; an identical or nearly identical duplicate of an original. |
Where the eye mixes come and copy
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: come is /kʌm/ while copy is /ˈkɒpi/. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1913, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
come is recorded at frequency rank #161, classified as averb, pronounced /kʌm/. copy is at rank #1,752, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɒpi/.
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 1913, this pair ranks #526,314 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of come vs copy
Shared letters: co. Private to "come": em. Private to "copy": py.
"come" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "copy" · 4 letters · shape CVCV