commencevscommentedWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#13,119
“commence” frequency rank
#6,343
“commented” frequency rank
19462
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature commence commented
Definition To begin, start. simple past and past participle of comment

Where the eye mixes commence and commented

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

8 ch
commence
9 ch
commented

Look-alike desk: commence vs commented

A purely visual mix-up. commence (/kəˈmɛns/) and commented (/ˈkɑmɛntɪd/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19462, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

commence is recorded at frequency rank #13,119, classified as averb, pronounced /kəˈmɛns/. commented is at rank #6,343, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈkɑmɛntɪd/.

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 19462, this pair ranks #438,019 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of commence vs commented

Shared letters: cemno. Private to "commence": -. Private to "commented": dt.

"commence" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV  ·  "commented" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • commenceccommence · cmomence · comemnce · comence · commance · commecne · commencce · commenec
  • commentedccommented · cmomented · comemnted · comented · commenetd · commennted · commentde · commentedd

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "commence" and "commented" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/kəˈmɛns/ versus /ˈkɑmɛntɪd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "commence" or "commented"?
"commented" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,343 in our English list, against #13,119 for "commence". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "commence" and "commented" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "commence" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "commented" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #438,019 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "commence" and "commented" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "commence vs commenter". 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 #438,019 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