Which to use
“cared” and “cased” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,942
- “cared” frequency rank
- #48,121
- “cased” frequency rank
- 54063
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cared | cased |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of care | simple past and past participle of case |
Where the eye mixes cared and cased
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cared and cased follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: cared vs cased
A purely visual mix-up. cared (/kɛɹd/) and cased (/keɪst/) 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 - r in “cared” becomes s in “cased”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54063, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cared is recorded at frequency rank #5,942, classified as averb, pronounced /kɛɹd/. 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 54063, this pair ranks #144,008 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cared vs cased
Shared letters: acde. Private to "cared": r. Private to "cased": s.
"cared" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "cased" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cared" and "cased" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "cared" vs "cased" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "cared" and "cased" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cared" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cased" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #144,008 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cared" and "cased" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cased vs clasped". 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 #144,008 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.