cabsvscasWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: cabs is a noun, cas is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cabs” is a noun and “cas” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#22,602
“cabs” frequency rank
#14,713
“cas” frequency rank
37315
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cabs cas
Definition plural of cab Abbreviation of casual.

Where the eye mixes cabs and cas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
cabs
3 ch
cas

Visual trap between cabs and cas

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cabs is /kæbz/ while cas is /kæʒ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37315, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cabs is recorded at frequency rank #22,602, classified as anoun, pronounced /kæbz/. cas is at rank #14,713, tagged as anadj, pronounced /kæʒ/.

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 37315, this pair ranks #295,621 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cabs vs cas

Shared letters: acs. Private to "cabs": b. Private to "cas": -.

"cabs" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "cas" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cabsacbs · cabbs · cabss · casb · cbas · ccabs

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cabs" and "cas" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cabs" is a noun and "cas" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "cabs" vs "cas" - which ranks higher?
"cas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,713 in our English list, against #22,602 for "cabs". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cabs" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #295,621 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cabs" and "cas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cabs vs Crabb". 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 #295,621 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list