Which to use
“cased” and “cater” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #48,121
- “cased” frequency rank
- #13,880
- “cater” frequency rank
- 62001
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cased | cater |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of case | To provide, particularly |
Where the eye mixes cased and cater
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: cased vs cater
A purely visual mix-up. cased (/keɪst/) and cater (/ˈkeɪtə/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62001, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cased is recorded at frequency rank #48,121, classified as averb, pronounced /keɪst/. cater is at rank #13,880, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈkeɪtə/.
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 62001, this pair ranks #90,948 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cased vs cater
Shared letters: ace. Private to "cased": ds. Private to "cater": rt.
"cased" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "cater" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cased" and "cater" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "cased" or "cater" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "cased" and "cater" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cased" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cater" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #90,948 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cased" and "cater" 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 #90,948 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.