capervscasedWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#34,418
“caper” frequency rank
#48,121
“cased” frequency rank
82539
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caper cased
Definition A playful leap or jump. simple past and past participle of case

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set caper and cased apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
caper
5 ch
cased

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: caper is /ˈkeɪpɚ/ while cased is /keɪst/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82539, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

caper is recorded at frequency rank #34,418, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkeɪpɚ/. cased is at rank #48,121, tagged as averb, pronounced /keɪst/.

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 82539, this pair ranks #15,554 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of caper vs cased

Shared letters: ace. Private to "caper": pr. Private to "cased": ds.

"caper" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "cased" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caperacper · caepr · caperr · capper · capre · ccaper · cpaer
  • casedacsed · caesd · casde · casedd · cassed · ccased · csaed

Frequency comparison

caper#34,418
cased#48,121

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "caper" and "cased" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "caper" is a noun and "cased" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "caper" or "cased"?
"caper" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,418 in our English list, against #48,121 for "cased". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering caper vs cased

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “caper”; for a verb, it's “cased”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “caper” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list