committalvscommitteeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#44,700
“committal” frequency rank
#1,046
“committee” frequency rank
45746
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature committal committee
Definition The act of entrusting something to someone. A body of one or more persons convened for the accomplishment of some specific purpose, typically with formal protocols.

Where the eye mixes committal and committee

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

9 ch
committal
9 ch
committee

Look-alike desk: committal vs committee

A purely visual mix-up. committal (/kəˈmɪtəl/) and committee (/kəˈmɪt.i/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45746, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

committal is recorded at frequency rank #44,700, classified as anoun, pronounced /kəˈmɪtəl/. committee is at rank #1,046, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kəˈmɪt.i/.

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 45746, this pair ranks #218,325 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of committal vs committee

Shared letters: cimot. Private to "committal": al. Private to "committee": e.

"committal" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC  ·  "committee" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • committalccommittal · cmomittal · comimttal · comittal · commital · commitatl · committall · committla
  • committeeccommittee · cmomittee · comimttee · comittee · commitee · commitete · committe · commtitee

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "committal" for "committee" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/kəˈmɪtəl/ versus /kəˈmɪt.i/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "committal" or "committee" show up more?
"committee" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,046 in our English list, against #44,700 for "committal". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "committal" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "committee" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #218,325 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "committal" and "committee" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "committal vs committed". 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 #218,325 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