Which to use
“cable” and “cause” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #2,776
- “cable” frequency rank
- #441
- “cause” frequency rank
- 3217
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cable | cause |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A long object used to make a physical connection. | The source of, or reason for, an event or action; that which produces or effects a result. |
Where the eye mixes cable and cause
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. cable (/ˈkeɪ.bəl/) and cause (/kɔːz/) 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 3217, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cable is recorded at frequency rank #2,776, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkeɪ.bəl/. cause is at rank #441, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɔːz/.
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 3217, this pair ranks #522,770 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of cable vs cause
Shared letters: ace. Private to "cable": bl. Private to "cause": su.
"cable" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "cause" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV