Which to use
“costume” is a noun and “costumed” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #5,315
- “costume” frequency rank
- #40,188
- “costumed” frequency rank
- 45503
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | costume | costumed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A style of dress, including garments, accessories and hairstyle, especially as characteristic of a particular country, period or people. | Wearing a costume; disguised. |
Letter map: costume vs costumed
Shared letters muted; letters that set costume and costumed apart highlighted. Shared run: 7. costume runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against costumed's 8 (CVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Role in the sentence - costume and costumed
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: costume is anoun and costumedanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “costume” sits inside “costumed”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45503, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
costume is recorded at frequency rank #5,315, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɒs.tjuːm/. costumed is at rank #40,188, tagged as anadj.
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 45503, this pair ranks #220,678 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of costume vs costumed
Shared letters: cemostu. Private to "costume": -. Private to "costumed": d.
"costume" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV · "costumed" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "costume" and "costumed" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "costume" vs "costumed" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Pair "costume" vs "costumed" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "costume" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "costumed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #220,678 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "costume" and "costumed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "consumed vs costumed". 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 #220,678 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.