JamesvsJammuWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#809
“James” frequency rank
#25,808
“Jammu” frequency rank
26617
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature James Jammu
Definition The twentieth book of the New Testament of the Bible, the general epistle of James. A division of the union territory of Jammu and Kashmir, India, consisting of the southern portion.

Where the eye mixes James and Jammu

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. James (CVCVC) and Jammu (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
James
5 ch
Jammu

Visual trap between James and Jammu

A purely visual mix-up. James (/d͡ʒeɪmz/) and Jammu (/ˈd͡ʒʌm.uː/) 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 26617, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

James is recorded at frequency rank #809, classified as aname, pronounced /d͡ʒeɪmz/. Jammu is at rank #25,808, tagged as aname, pronounced /ˈd͡ʒʌm.uː/.

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 26617, this pair ranks #385,360 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of James vs Jammu

Shared letters: ajm. Private to "James": es. Private to "Jammu": u.

"James" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "Jammu" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • James ← ajmes · jaems · jamess · jammes · jamse · jjames · jmaes
  • Jammu ← ajmmu · jamu · jamum · jjammu · jmamu

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "James" for "Jammu" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/d͡ʒeɪmz/ versus /ˈd͡ʒʌm.uː/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "James" vs "Jammu" - which ranks higher?
"James" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #809 in our English list, against #25,808 for "Jammu". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "James" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Jammu" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #385,360 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "James" and "Jammu" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Jammer vs Jammu". 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 #385,360 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