costume vs costumes, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“costume” and “costumes” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#4,459
“costume” frequency rank: #5,078
“costumes” frequency rank: 9537
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	costume	costumes
Definition	hábito	plural de costume

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set costume and costumes apart are highlighted. They share 7 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch

costume

8 ch

costumes

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. costume (/kuʃ.ˈtu.mɨ/) and costumes (/kos.ˈtu.mɪs/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “costume” sits inside “costumes”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 9537, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

costume is recorded at frequency rank #4,459, classified as anoun, pronounced /kuʃ.ˈtu.mɨ/. costumes is at rank #5,078, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kos.ˈtu.mɪs/.

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 9537, this pair ranks #63,850 of 75,631 scored Portuguese 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

costume ← ccostume · cosstume · costmue · costtume · costuem · costumme · cosutme · cotsume
costumes ← ccostumes · cosstumes · costmues · costtumes · costuems · costumess · costummes · costumse

Frequency comparison

costume#4,459

costumes#5,078

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "costume" and "costumes" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (/kuʃ.ˈtu.mɨ/ versus /kos.ˈtu.mɪs/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "costume" or "costumes"?

"costume" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,459 in our Portuguese list, against #5,078 for "costumes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering costume vs costumes

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “costume” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable