cage vs Cargo, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“cage” and “Cargo” are a confusable German pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#22,664
“cage” frequency rank: #24,666
“Cargo” frequency rank: 47330
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	cage	Cargo
Definition	Käfig	die Ladung eines Schiffes

Letter map: cage vs Cargo

Shared letters muted; letters that set cage and Cargo apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

4 ch

cage

5 ch

Cargo

Corpus notes: cage and Cargo

cage and Cargo are indexed as a confusable German pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47330, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cage is recorded at frequency rank #22,664, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. Cargo is at rank #24,666, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkaʁɡo].

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 47330, this pair ranks #1,288,116 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cage vs Cargo

Shared letters: acg. Private to "cage": e. Private to "Cargo": or.

"cage" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "Cargo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

cage ← acge · caeg · cagge · ccage · cgae
Cargo ← acrgo · cagro · carggo · carog · carrgo · ccargo · crago

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cage" and "Cargo" be used interchangeably?

No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.

Which is more common, "cage" or "Cargo"?

"cage" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,664 in our German list, against #24,666 for "Cargo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "cage" and "Cargo".

Full dictionary entry for "cage" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "Cargo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #1,288,116 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"cage" and "Cargo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Cargo vs carr". 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 #1,288,116 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.