Which to use
“caged” is an adjective and “cate” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #26,707
- “caged” frequency rank
- #25,700
- “cate” frequency rank
- 52407
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | caged | cate |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Confined in a cage. | A delicacy or item of food. |
Letter map: caged vs cate
Shared letters muted; letters that set caged and cate apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.
Part-of-speech tell for caged / cate
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: caged is anadjective and cateanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52407, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
caged is recorded at frequency rank #26,707, classified as anadj. cate is at rank #25,700, tagged as anoun, pronounced /keɪt/.
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 52407, this pair ranks #157,298 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of caged vs cate
Shared letters: ace. Private to "caged": dg. Private to "cate": t.
"caged" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "cate" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "caged" for "cate" ever safe?
Which is more common, "caged" or "cate"?
Useful next steps
Pair "caged" vs "cate" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "caged" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cate" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #157,298 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "caged" and "cate" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cate vs CGT". 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 #157,298 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.