casedvschasesWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: cased is a verb, chases is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cased” is a verb and “chases” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,121
“cased” frequency rank
#21,745
“chases” frequency rank
69866
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cased chases
Definition simple past and past participle of case plural of chase

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set cased and chases apart are highlighted. They share 4 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
cased
6 ch
chases

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cased is /keɪst/ while chases is /ˈt͡ʃeɪsɪz/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69866, 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/. chases is at rank #21,745, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈt͡ʃeɪsɪz/.

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 69866, this pair ranks #52,808 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cased vs chases

Shared letters: aces. Private to "cased": d. Private to "chases": h.

"cased" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "chases" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • casedacsed · caesd · casde · casedd · cassed · ccased · csaed
  • chasescahses · cchases · chaess · chasess · chasses · chhases · chsaes · hcases

Frequency comparison

cased#48,121
chases#21,745

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cased" and "chases" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cased" is a verb and "chases" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "cased" or "chases"?
"chases" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,745 in our English list, against #48,121 for "cased". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering cased vs chases

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need a verb, it's “cased”; for a noun, it's “chases”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “cased” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list