communevscommuterWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#19,560
“commune” frequency rank
#16,200
“commuter” frequency rank
35760
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature commune commuter
Definition A small community, often rural, whose members share in the ownership of property, and in the division of labour; the members of such a community. One who commutes (etymology 1).

Where the eye mixes commune and commuter

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
commune
8 ch
commuter

Visual trap between commune and commuter

A purely visual mix-up. commune (/ˈkɒmjuːn/) and commuter (/kəˈmjuːtɚ/) 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 35760, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

commune is recorded at frequency rank #19,560, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɒmjuːn/. commuter is at rank #16,200, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kəˈmjuːtɚ/.

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 35760, this pair ranks #309,164 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of commune vs commuter

Shared letters: cemou. Private to "commune": n. Private to "commuter": rt.

"commune" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "commuter" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • communeccommune · cmomune · commnue · commuen · communne · comumne · comune · ocmmune
  • commuterccommuter · cmomuter · commtuer · commuetr · commuterr · commutre · commutter · comumter

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "commune" for "commuter" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈkɒmjuːn/ versus /kəˈmjuːtɚ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "commune" or "commuter" show up more?
"commuter" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,200 in our English list, against #19,560 for "commune". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "commune" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "commuter" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #309,164 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "commune" and "commuter" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "comming vs commune". 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 #309,164 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