Which to use
“card” and “care” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #964
- “card” frequency rank
- #247
- “care” frequency rank
- 1211
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | card | care |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | A playing card. | Close attention; concern; responsibility. |
Where the eye mixes card and care
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. card (/kɑːd/) and care (/kɛə/) 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 a single letter - d in “card” becomes e in “care”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1211, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
card is recorded at frequency rank #964, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɑːd/. care is at rank #247, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɛə/.
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 1211, this pair ranks #527,876 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of card vs care
Shared letters: acr. Private to "card": d. Private to "care": e.
"card" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "care" · 4 letters · shape CVCV