kittyvstapesTell them apart

Quick tell: kitty is a noun, tapes is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“kitty” is a noun and “tapes” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#17,340
“kitty” frequency rank
#41,496
“tapes” frequency rank
58836
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature kitty tapes
Definition Kätzchen, Mieze 2. Person Singular Präsens Konjunktiv des Verbs tapar

Letter map: kitty vs tapes

Shared letters muted; letters that set kitty and tapes apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. kitty (CVCCV) and tapes (CVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
kitty
5 ch
tapes

Role in the sentence - kitty and tapes

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: kitty is anoun and tapesaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 5 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58836, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

kitty is recorded at frequency rank #17,340, classified as anoun, pronounced […]. tapes is at rank #41,496, tagged as averb, pronounced […].

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 58836, this pair ranks #847,455 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of kitty vs tapes

Shared letters: t. Private to "kitty": iky. Private to "tapes": aeps.

"kitty" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "tapes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • kittyiktty · kittyy · kity · kityt · kkitty · ktity
  • tapesatpes · taeps · tapess · tappes · tapse · tpaes · ttapes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "kitty" for "tapes" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "kitty" is a noun and "tapes" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "kitty" or "tapes"?
"kitty" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,340 in our German list, against #41,496 for "tapes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "kitty" and "tapes".

  • Full dictionary entry for "kitty" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "tapes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #847,455 of 2,006,359 scored German confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "kitty" and "tapes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puzzles vs tapes". 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 #847,455 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