cashedvscavedConfusable pair

Which to use

“cashed” and “caved” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#25,311
“cashed” frequency rank
#29,586
“caved” frequency rank
54897
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cashed caved
Definition simple past and past participle of cash past participle of cave

Where the eye mixes cashed and caved

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
cashed
5 ch
caved

Visual trap between cashed and caved

A purely visual mix-up. cashed (/kæʃt/) and caved (/keɪvd/) 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 54897, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cashed is recorded at frequency rank #25,311, classified as averb, pronounced /kæʃt/. caved is at rank #29,586, tagged as averb, pronounced /keɪvd/.

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 54897, this pair ranks #137,640 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cashed vs caved

Shared letters: acde. Private to "cashed": hs. Private to "caved": v.

"cashed" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "caved" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cashedacshed · casehd · cashde · cashedd · cashhed · casshed · ccashed · csahed
  • cavedacved · caevd · cavde · cavedd · cavved · ccaved · cvaed

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cashed" for "caved" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/kæʃt/ versus /keɪvd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "cashed" or "caved" show up more?
"cashed" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,311 in our English list, against #29,586 for "caved". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cashed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "caved" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #137,640 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cashed" and "caved" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caved vs cleaved". 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 #137,640 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list