Which to use
“care” and “cause” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #247
- “care” frequency rank
- #441
- “cause” frequency rank
- 688
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | care | cause |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Close attention; concern; responsibility. | The source of, or reason for, an event or action; that which produces or effects a result. |
Where the eye mixes care and cause
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
A purely visual mix-up. care (/kɛə/) and cause (/kɔːz/) 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 688, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
care is recorded at frequency rank #247, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɛə/. cause is at rank #441, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɔːz/.
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 688, this pair ranks #528,976 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of care vs cause
Shared letters: ace. Private to "care": r. Private to "cause": su.
"care" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "cause" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV