Which to use
“cased” and “coated” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #48,121
- “cased” frequency rank
- #11,358
- “coated” frequency rank
- 59479
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cased | coated |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | simple past and past participle of case | simple past and past participle of coat |
Where the eye mixes cased and coated
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cased runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against coated's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: cased vs coated
A purely visual mix-up. cased (/keɪst/) and coated (/ˈkəʊtɪd/) 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 59479, 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/. coated is at rank #11,358, tagged as averb, pronounced /ˈkəʊtɪd/.
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 59479, this pair ranks #105,923 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cased vs coated
Shared letters: acde. Private to "cased": s. Private to "coated": ot.
"cased" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "coated" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cased" and "coated" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "cased" or "coated"?
After this comparison
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "cased" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "coated" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #105,923 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cased" and "coated" 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 #105,923 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.