comumvscumWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: comum is a noun, cum is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“comum” is a noun and “cum” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#667
“comum” frequency rank
#29,299
“cum” frequency rank
29966
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature comum cum
Definition o ano comum, no calendário juliano ou no gregoriano usado para indicar algo com duas funções, ou então que tenha se modificado de uma coisa para outra:

Letter map: comum vs cum

Shared letters muted; letters that set comum and cum apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
comum
3 ch
cum

Role in the sentence - comum and cum

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: comum is anoun and cumapreposition. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29966, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

comum is recorded at frequency rank #667, classified as anoun. cum is at rank #29,299, tagged as aprep, pronounced /kʌm/.

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 29966, this pair ranks #38,523 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of comum vs cum

Shared letters: cmu. Private to "comum": o. Private to "cum": -.

"comum" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "cum" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • comumccomum · cmoum · commu · commum · comumm · coumm · ocmum

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "comum" for "cum" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "comum" is a noun and "cum" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "comum" or "cum"?
"comum" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #667 in our Portuguese list, against #29,299 for "cum". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pair "comum" vs "cum" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "comum" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cum" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #38,523 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "comum" and "cum" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cham vs cum". 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 #38,523 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