Which to use
“cape” and “cup” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,289
- “cape” frequency rank
- #805
- “cup” frequency rank
- 5094
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cape | cup |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A piece or point of land, extending beyond the adjacent coast into a sea or lake; a promontory; a headland. | A concave vessel for drinking, usually made of opaque material (as opposed to a glass) and with a handle. |
Where the eye mixes cape and cup
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: cape vs cup
A purely visual mix-up. cape (/keɪp/) and cup (/kʌp/) 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 5094, 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/. cup is at rank #805, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kʌp/.
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 5094, this pair ranks #516,616 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of cape vs cup
Shared letters: cp. Private to "cape": ae. Private to "cup": u.
"cape" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "cup" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- cape ← acpe · caep · cappe · ccape · cpae
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cape" and "cup" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "cape" vs "cup" - which ranks higher?
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 "cape" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cup" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #516,616 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cape" and "cup" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cape vs caw". 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 #516,616 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.