Which to use
“cabal” and “carat” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #27,392
- “cabal” frequency rank
- #23,773
- “carat” frequency rank
- 51165
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cabal | carat |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A putative, secret organization of individuals gathered for a political purpose. | A metric unit of mass equal to exactly 200 mg, chiefly used for measuring precious stones and pearls. |
Where the eye mixes cabal and carat
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cabal and carat follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between cabal and carat
A purely visual mix-up. cabal (/kəˈbɑːl/) and carat (/ˈkæ.ɹət/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51165, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cabal is recorded at frequency rank #27,392, classified as anoun, pronounced /kəˈbɑːl/. carat is at rank #23,773, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkæ.ɹət/.
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 51165, this pair ranks #167,830 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cabal vs carat
Shared letters: ac. Private to "cabal": bl. Private to "carat": rt.
"cabal" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "carat" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cabal" and "carat" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "cabal" vs "carat" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "cabal" and "carat" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cabal" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "carat" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #167,830 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cabal" and "carat" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cabal vs cymbal". 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 #167,830 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.