Which to use
“come” is a verb and “crime” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #161
- “come” frequency rank
- #1,362
- “crime” frequency rank
- 1523
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | come | crime |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | To move nearer to the point of perspective. | A specific act committed in violation of the law, especially criminal law. |
Where the eye mixes come and crime
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: come is /kʌm/ while crime is /kɹaɪm/. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1523, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
come is recorded at frequency rank #161, classified as averb, pronounced /kʌm/. crime is at rank #1,362, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹaɪm/.
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 1523, this pair ranks #527,251 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of come vs crime
Shared letters: cem. Private to "come": o. Private to "crime": ir.
"come" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "crime" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV