cakedvscaseTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#41,542
“caked” frequency rank
#255
“case” frequency rank
41797
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caked case
Definition simple past and past participle of cake An actual event, situation, or fact.

Where the eye mixes caked and case

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

5 ch
caked
4 ch
case

Visual trap between caked and case

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: caked is /keɪkt/ while case is /keɪs/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41797, 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/. case is at rank #255, tagged as anoun, pronounced /keɪs/.

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 41797, this pair ranks #255,107 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of caked vs case

Shared letters: ace. Private to "caked": dk. Private to "case": s.

"caked" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "case" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cakedacked · caekd · cakde · cakedd · cakked · ccaked · ckaed
  • caseacse · caes · casse · ccase · csae

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "caked" for "case" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "caked" is a verb and "case" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "caked" or "case"?
"case" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #255 in our English list, against #41,542 for "caked". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "caked" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "case" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #255,107 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caked" and "case" 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 #255,107 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