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 eye mixes costume and costumes
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. 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.
Look-alike desk: costume vs costumes
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
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "costume" for "costumes" ever safe?
Frequency check: "costume" vs "costumes" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- 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 #63,850 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "costume" and "costumes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "costume vs costura". 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 #63,850 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.