cachevscapeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“cache” and “cape” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#12,382
“cache” frequency rank
#4,289
“cape” frequency rank
16671
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cache cape
Definition A store, protected and often hidden in some way, of things that may be required in the future, such that they can be retrieved rapidly. A piece or point of land, extending beyond the adjacent coast into a sea or lake; a promontory; a headland.

Where the eye mixes cache and cape

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

5 ch
cache
4 ch
cape

Visual trap between cache and cape

A purely visual mix-up. cache (/kæʃ/) and cape (/keɪp/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16671, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cache is recorded at frequency rank #12,382, classified as anoun, pronounced /kæʃ/. cape is at rank #4,289, tagged as anoun, pronounced /keɪp/.

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 16671, this pair ranks #456,277 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cache vs cape

Shared letters: ace. Private to "cache": h. Private to "cape": p.

"cache" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "cape" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cacheacche · cacche · caceh · cachhe · cahce · ccache · ccahe
  • capeacpe · caep · cappe · ccape · cpae

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cache" and "cape" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/kæʃ/ versus /keɪp/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "cache" or "cape" show up more?
"cape" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,289 in our English list, against #12,382 for "cache". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cache" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cape" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #456,277 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cache" and "cape" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cape vs caw". 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 #456,277 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