cavevscoleWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#34,568
“cave” frequency rank
#16,386
“cole” frequency rank
50954
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cave cole
Definition Höhle Nominativ Plural des Substantivs cola

Letter map: cave vs cole

Shared letters muted; letters that set cave and cole apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
cave
4 ch
cole

Spelling & dictionary notes on cave vs cole

cave and cole 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50954, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cave is recorded at frequency rank #34,568, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. cole is at rank #16,386, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkɔlɛ].

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 50954, this pair ranks #1,154,076 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cave vs cole

Shared letters: ce. Private to "cave": av. Private to "cole": lo.

"cave" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cole" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caveacve · caev · cavve · ccave · cvae
  • coleccole · cloe · coel · colle · ocle

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cave" for "cole" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "cave" vs "cole" - which ranks higher?
"cole" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,386 in our German list, against #34,568 for "cave". 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 "cave" and "cole".

  • Full dictionary entry for "cave" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cole" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,154,076 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cave" and "cole" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cave vs puzzles". 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 #1,154,076 of 2,006,359 scored German pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list