capesvscasWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: capes is a noun, cas is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“capes” is a noun and “cas” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#28,860
“capes” frequency rank
#14,713
“cas” frequency rank
43573
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature capes cas
Definition plural of cape Abbreviation of casual.

Where the eye mixes capes and cas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
capes
3 ch
cas

Visual trap between capes and cas

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: capes is /keɪps/ while cas is /kæʒ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43573, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

capes is recorded at frequency rank #28,860, classified as anoun, pronounced /keɪps/. cas is at rank #14,713, tagged as anadj, pronounced /kæʒ/.

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 43573, this pair ranks #238,720 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of capes vs cas

Shared letters: acs. Private to "capes": ep. Private to "cas": -.

"capes" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "cas" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • capesacpes · caeps · capess · cappes · capse · ccapes · cpaes

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "capes" for "cas" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "capes" is a noun and "cas" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "capes" or "cas"?
"cas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,713 in our English list, against #28,860 for "capes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "capes" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #238,720 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "capes" and "cas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "capes vs cates". 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 #238,720 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list