Which to use
“caged” is an adjective and “cased” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #26,707
- “caged” frequency rank
- #48,121
- “cased” frequency rank
- 74828
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | caged | cased |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Confined in a cage. | simple past and past participle of case |
Where the spellings diverge
Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set caged and cased apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: caged is anadjective and casedaverb. On the page they differ by a single letter - g in “caged” becomes s in “cased”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74828, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
caged is recorded at frequency rank #26,707, classified as anadj. cased is at rank #48,121, tagged as averb, pronounced /keɪst/.
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 74828, this pair ranks #35,098 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of caged vs cased
Shared letters: acde. Private to "caged": g. Private to "cased": s.
"caged" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "cased" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequency comparison
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "caged" and "cased" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "caged" or "cased"?
Remembering caged vs cased
The fastest way to pick the right one every time.
- Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “caged”; for a verb, it's “cased”.
- See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “caged” entry
- Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable