Which to use
“cape” and “cue” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,289
- “cape” frequency rank
- #10,351
- “cue” frequency rank
- 14640
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cape | cue |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A piece or point of land, extending beyond the adjacent coast into a sea or lake; a promontory; a headland. | The name of the Latin script letter Q/q. |
Where the eye mixes cape and cue
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: cape vs cue
A purely visual mix-up. cape (/keɪp/) and cue (/ˈkjuː/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14640, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cape is recorded at frequency rank #4,289, classified as anoun, pronounced /keɪp/. cue is at rank #10,351, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkjuː/.
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 14640, this pair ranks #468,823 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of cape vs cue
Shared letters: ce. Private to "cape": ap. Private to "cue": u.
"cape" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "cue" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- cape ← acpe · caep · cappe · ccape · cpae
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cape" and "cue" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "cape" vs "cue" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "cape" and "cue" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cape" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #468,823 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cape" and "cue" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CGT vs cue". 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 #468,823 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.