Which to use
“cared” and “coaxed” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #5,942
- “cared” frequency rank
- #47,536
- “coaxed” frequency rank
- 53478
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cared | coaxed |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of care | simple past and past participle of coax |
Where the eye mixes cared and coaxed
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cared runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against coaxed's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: cared vs coaxed
A purely visual mix-up. cared (/kɛɹd/) and coaxed (/kəʊkst/) 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 53478, 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/. coaxed is at rank #47,536, tagged as averb, pronounced /kəʊkst/.
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 53478, this pair ranks #148,624 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cared vs coaxed
Shared letters: acde. Private to "cared": r. Private to "coaxed": ox.
"cared" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "coaxed" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cared" and "coaxed" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "cared" or "coaxed"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "cared" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "coaxed" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #148,624 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cared" and "coaxed" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cased vs coaxed". 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 #148,624 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.