cachesvscanesWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#33,159
“caches” frequency rank
#25,002
“canes” frequency rank
58161
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caches canes
Definition plural of cache plural of cane

Where the eye mixes caches and canes

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. caches runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against canes's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
caches
5 ch
canes

Look-alike desk: caches vs canes

A purely visual mix-up. caches (/ˈkæʃɪz/) and canes (/keɪnz/) 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 58161, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

caches is recorded at frequency rank #33,159, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkæʃɪz/. canes is at rank #25,002, tagged as anoun, pronounced /keɪnz/.

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 58161, this pair ranks #114,469 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of caches vs canes

Shared letters: aces. Private to "caches": h. Private to "canes": n.

"caches" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "canes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caches ← cacches · cacehs · cachess · cachhes · cachse · cahces · ccaches · ccahes
  • canes ← acnes · caens · caness · canse · ccanes · cnaes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "caches" and "canes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈkæʃɪz/ versus /keɪnz/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "caches" or "canes"?
"canes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,002 in our English list, against #33,159 for "caches". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "caches" and "canes" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "caches" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "canes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #114,469 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caches" and "canes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caches vs cates". 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 #114,469 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