cakedvscapesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: caked is a verb, capes is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“caked” is a verb and “capes” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#41,542
“caked” frequency rank
#28,860
“capes” frequency rank
70402
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caked capes
Definition simple past and past participle of cake plural of cape

Where the eye mixes caked and capes

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

5 ch
caked
5 ch
capes

Look-alike desk: caked vs capes

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: caked is /keɪkt/ while capes is /keɪps/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70402, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

caked is recorded at frequency rank #41,542, classified as averb, pronounced /keɪkt/. capes is at rank #28,860, tagged as anoun, pronounced /keɪps/.

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 70402, this pair ranks #50,733 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of caked vs capes

Shared letters: ace. Private to "caked": dk. Private to "capes": ps.

"caked" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "capes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cakedacked · caekd · cakde · cakedd · cakked · ccaked · ckaed
  • capesacpes · caeps · capess · cappes · capse · ccapes · cpaes

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "caked" and "capes" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "caked" is a verb and "capes" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "caked" vs "capes" - which ranks higher?
"capes" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,860 in our English list, against #41,542 for "caked". 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 "caked" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "capes" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #50,733 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caked" and "capes" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caked 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 #50,733 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