comvscutConfusable pair

Quick tell: com is a preposition, cut is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“com” is a preposition and “cut” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14
“com” frequency rank
#11,244
“cut” frequency rank
11258
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature com cut
Definition indica várias relações: companhia, causa, instrumento, ligação, modo, oposição cortado

Where the eye mixes com and cut

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
com
3 ch
cut

Why the eye confuses com with cut

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: com is /kõ/ while cut is /ˈkʌt/. 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 (preposition vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11258, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

com is recorded at frequency rank #14, classified as aprep, pronounced /kõ/. cut is at rank #11,244, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈkʌt/.

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 11258, this pair ranks #61,630 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of com vs cut

Shared letters: c. Private to "com": mo. Private to "cut": tu.

"com" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "cut" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "com" for "cut" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "com" is a preposition and "cut" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "com" or "cut"?
"com" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14 in our Portuguese list, against #11,244 for "cut". 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 "com" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cut" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #61,630 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "com" and "cut" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coat vs cut". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #61,630 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