Which to use
“cakes” and “cates” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #8,903
- “cakes” frequency rank
- #48,123
- “cates” frequency rank
- 57026
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cakes | cates |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | plural of cake | Provisions; food; viands; especially, luxurious food; delicacies; dainties. |
Letter map: cakes vs cates
Shared letters muted; letters that set cakes and cates apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. cakes and cates follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Pair insight - cakes / cates
cakes and cates are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - k in “cakes” becomes t in “cates”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57026, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cakes is recorded at frequency rank #8,903, classified as anoun, pronounced /keɪks/. cates is at rank #48,123, tagged as anoun.
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 57026, this pair ranks #122,079 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cakes vs cates
Shared letters: aces. Private to "cakes": k. Private to "cates": t.
"cakes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "cates" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cakes" for "cates" ever safe?
Frequency check: "cakes" vs "cates" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Pair "cakes" vs "cates" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "cakes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cates" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #122,079 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cakes" and "cates" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cates vs catty". 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 #122,079 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.