commavscomteTell them apart

Which to use

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

#20,315
“comma” frequency rank
#32,330
“comte” frequency rank
52645
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature comma comte
Definition The punctuation mark ⟨,⟩ used to indicate a set of parts of a sentence or between elements of a list. A French count.

Letter map: comma vs comte

Shared letters muted; letters that set comma and comte apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
comma
5 ch
comte

Corpus notes: comma and comte

comma and comte 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 52645, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

comma is recorded at frequency rank #20,315, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɒmə/. comte is at rank #32,330, tagged as anoun.

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 52645, this pair ranks #155,343 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of comma vs comte

Shared letters: cmo. Private to "comma": a. Private to "comte": et.

"comma" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "comte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • commaccomma · cmoma · comam · ocmma
  • comteccomte · cmote · commte · comtte · cotme · ocmte

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "comma" for "comte" ever safe?
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.
Which is more common, "comma" or "comte"?
"comma" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,315 in our English list, against #32,330 for "comte". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "comma" and "comte". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "comma" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "comte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #155,343 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "comma" and "comte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coms vs comte". 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 #155,343 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