commvscrimTell them apart

Which to use

“comm” and “crim” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#17,801
“comm” frequency rank
#41,573
“crim” frequency rank
59374
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature comm crim
Definition Clipping of communication. A criminal.

Letter map: comm vs crim

Shared letters muted; letters that set comm and crim apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. comm (CVCC) and crim (CCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
comm
4 ch
crim

Pair insight - comm / crim

comm and crim are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59374, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

comm is recorded at frequency rank #17,801, classified as anoun. crim is at rank #41,573, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɹɪm/.

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 59374, this pair ranks #106,579 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of comm vs crim

Shared letters: cm. Private to "comm": o. Private to "crim": ir.

"comm" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "crim" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • comm ← ccomm · cmom · com · ocmm
  • crim ← ccrim · cirm · crimm · crmi · crrim · rcim

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "comm" and "crim" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "comm" vs "crim" - which ranks higher?
"comm" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,801 in our English list, against #41,573 for "crim". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "comm" and "crim".

  • Full dictionary entry for "comm" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crim" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #106,579 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "comm" and "crim" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "crim vs Crist". 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 #106,579 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