ciúmevscommeTell them apart

Quick tell: ciúme is a noun, comme is an adverb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ciúme” is a noun and “comme” is an adverb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,626
“ciúme” frequency rank
#36,383
“comme” frequency rank
49009
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ciúme comme
Definition sentimento causado pelo receio de perder, para outro, o afeto da pessoa amada; zelos como.

Where the eye mixes ciúme and comme

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
ciúme
5 ch
comme

Why the eye confuses ciúme with comme

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ciúme is /ˈsju.mɨ/ while comme is [kɔm]. 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 (noun vs adverb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49009, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ciúme is recorded at frequency rank #12,626, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsju.mɨ/. comme is at rank #36,383, tagged as anadv, pronounced [kɔm].

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 49009, this pair ranks #16,072 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ciúme vs comme

Shared letters: cem. Private to "ciúme": . Private to "comme": o.

"ciúme" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "comme" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • commeccomme · cmome · come · comem · ocmme

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ciúme" for "comme" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ciúme" is a noun and "comme" an adverb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "ciúme" vs "comme" - which ranks higher?
"ciúme" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,626 in our Portuguese list, against #36,383 for "comme". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ciúme" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "comme" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,072 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ciúme" and "comme" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coice vs comme". 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 #16,072 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list