Which to use
“murder” and “murderer” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,462
- “murder” frequency rank
- #9,368
- “murderer” frequency rank
- 10830
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | murder | murderer |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The crime of killing a person unlawfully, especially with predetermination. | A person who commits murder. |
Where the eye mixes murder and murderer
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: murder vs murderer
A purely visual mix-up. murder (/ˈmɜːdə(ɹ)/) and murderer (/ˈmɜːdəɹə/) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “murder” sits inside “murderer”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10830, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
murder is recorded at frequency rank #1,462, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɜːdə(ɹ)/. murderer is at rank #9,368, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈmɜːdəɹə/.
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 10830, this pair ranks #490,300 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of murder vs murderer
Shared letters: demru. Private to "murder": -. Private to "murderer": -.
"murder" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "murderer" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "murder" for "murderer" ever safe?
In ordinary English text, does "murder" or "murderer" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "murder" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "murderer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #490,300 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "murder" and "murderer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Maurer vs murder". 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 #490,300 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.