Which to use
“costume” and “costumes” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,658
- “costume” frequency rank
- #6,598
- “costumes” frequency rank
- 11256
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | costume | costumes |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Manière spécifique de se vêtir avec une connotation historique ou régionale. | Pluriel de costume. |
Same sound, different letters: costume vs costumes
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 7 letters. costume runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against costumes's 8 (CVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Homophone desk: costume vs costumes
This is the hard kind. costume and costumes are pronounced identically (\kɔs.tym\) and both work as anoun. Neither the ear nor the grammar will rescue you; only the meaning does, so the glosses below are the whole decision. They differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “costume” sits inside “costumes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11256, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
costume is recorded at frequency rank #4,658, classified as anoun, pronounced \kɔs.tym\. costumes is at rank #6,598, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kɔs.tym\.
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 11256, this pair ranks #409,832 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of costume vs costumes
Shared letters: cemostu. Private to "costume": -. Private to "costumes": -.
"costume" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV · "costumes" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "costume" for "costumes" ever safe?
Frequency check: "costume" vs "costumes" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Sound matches; spelling doesn't. Use the exits below to lock the right form or check a cousin pair.
- Full dictionary entry for "costume" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "costumes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #409,832 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "costume" and "costumes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "costumes vs coutumes". 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 #409,832 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.