comet
/ˈkɒmɪt/
"comet" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“comet” has 6 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #12,208. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #12,208
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A small Solar System body consisting mainly of volatile ice, dust and particles of rock whose very eccentric solar orbit periodically brings it close enough to the Sun that the ice vaporises to for...
Corpus desk
Index EN-comet · comet · English
comet · rank #12,208 · 6 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #12,208
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 6 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH cocoa
Nearest frequency peer: cocoa (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “comet”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- chunk
chunk
87,797 corpus weight
- classmates
classmates
87,796 corpus weight
- coca
coca
87,795 corpus weight
- cocoa
cocoa
87,794 corpus weight
- comet
comet
87,793 corpus weight
- compartment
compartment
87,792 corpus weight
What this shows “comet” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | comet |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkɒmɪt/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #12,208 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “comet”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 6 spelling variants around comet (IPA /ˈkɒmɪt/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #12,208 among 5,599 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for comet, with forms such as "ccomet", "cmoet", and "coemt". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "cot", "cost", "core", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Middle English comete, partly from Old English comēta and partly from Old French comete, both from Latin comētēs, from Ancient Greek κομήτης (komḗtēs, “longhaired”), short for ἀστὴρ κομήτης ([astēr] komētēs, "longhaired [star])" and referring to the ta… The correct English form is comet, spelled C-O-M-E-T.
Definition
- 1A small Solar System body consisting mainly of volatile ice, dust and particles of rock whose very eccentric solar orbit periodically brings it close enough to the Sun that the ice vaporises to form an atmosphere, or coma, which may be blown by the solar wind to produce a visible tail.
- 2A celestial phenomenon with the appearance of such a body.
- 3Any of several species of hummingbird found in the Andes.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how comet appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
And They made by the lifting of Their hands, each god according to his sign, the Bright One with the flaring tail to seek from the end of the Worlds to the end of them again, to return again after a hundred years. Man, when thou seest the comet, know that another seeketh besides thee nor ever findeth out.
Upon his browes was pourtraid vgly death, And in his eies the furies of his heart, That ſhine as Comets, menacing reueng, And caſts a pale complexion on his cheeks.
Etymology
From Middle English comete, partly from Old English comēta and partly from Old French comete, both from Latin comētēs, from Ancient Greek κομήτης (komḗtēs, “longhaired”), short for ἀστὴρ κομήτης ([astēr] komētēs, "longhaired [star])" and referring to the tail of a comet, from κόμη (kómē, “hair”). Compare English faxed star and Latin crīnīta stēlla (“comet”, literally “(long) haired star”).
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- ccomet
- cmoet
- coemt
- comett
- commet
- ocmet
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of comet - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "comet", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).