coldvscomeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: cold is a adjective, come is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cold” is an adjective and “come” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#29,113
“cold” frequency rank
#2,700
“come” frequency rank
31813
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cold come
Definition Frío. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de comer.

Where the eye mixes cold and come

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
cold
4 ch
come

Look-alike desk: cold vs come

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cold is /kəʊld/ while come is [ˈkome]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31813, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cold is recorded at frequency rank #29,113, classified as anadj, pronounced /kəʊld/. come is at rank #2,700, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈkome].

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 31813, this pair ranks #205,190 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cold vs come

Shared letters: co. Private to "cold": dl. Private to "come": em.

"cold" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "come" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coldccold · clod · codl · coldd · colld · ocld
  • comeccome · cmoe · coem · ocme

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cold" and "come" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cold" is an adjective and "come" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "cold" vs "come" - which ranks higher?
"come" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,700 in our Spanish list, against #29,113 for "cold". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cold" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "come" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #205,190 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cold" and "come" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coin vs cold". 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 #205,190 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list