Which to use
“came” is a verb and “caw” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #294
- “came” frequency rank
- #48,655
- “caw” frequency rank
- 48949
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | came | caw |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past of come | The harsh cry of a crow. |
Where the eye mixes came and caw
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: came is /keɪm/ while caw is /kɔː/. 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 48949, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
came is recorded at frequency rank #294, classified as averb, pronounced /keɪm/. caw is at rank #48,655, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɔː/.
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 48949, this pair ranks #188,267 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of came vs caw
Shared letters: ac. Private to "came": em. Private to "caw": w.
"came" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "caw" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- came ← caem · camme · ccame · cmae