comervscovetConfusable pair

Quick tell: comer is a noun, covet is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“comer” is a noun and “covet” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#34,438
“comer” frequency rank
#36,095
“covet” frequency rank
70533
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature comer covet
Definition One in a race who is catching up to others and shows promise of winning. To wish for with eagerness; to desire possession of, often enviously.

Where the eye mixes comer and covet

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. comer and covet follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
comer
5 ch
covet

Look-alike desk: comer vs covet

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: comer is /ˈkʌmɚ/ while covet is /ˈkʌvɪt/. 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 (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70533, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

comer is recorded at frequency rank #34,438, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkʌmɚ/. covet is at rank #36,095, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈkʌvɪt/.

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 70533, this pair ranks #50,198 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of comer vs covet

Shared letters: ceo. Private to "comer": mr. Private to "covet": tv.

"comer" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "covet" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • comer ← ccomer · cmoer · coemr · comerr · commer · comre · ocmer
  • covet ← ccovet · coevt · covett · covte · covvet · cvoet · ocvet

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "comer" and "covet" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "comer" is a noun and "covet" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "comer" or "covet"?
"comer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,438 in our English list, against #36,095 for "covet". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "comer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "covet" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #50,198 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "comer" and "covet" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "covet 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 #50,198 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