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Cater-corner or kitty corner?

cater-corner is an adjective meaning “At a diagonal to another; of four corners, those diagonal to another”; kitty corner is an adverb meaning “Cater-corner: located diagonally in relation to something, especially across an…”. Use cater-corner as an adjective and kitty corner as an adverb (kitty corner is also an adjective: “Alternative form of cater-corner”).

cater-cornerorkitty corner

What is the difference between cater-corner and kitty corner?

cater-cornerkitty corner
Part of speechadjective, adverbadjective, adverb
Meaning

CanadaUSAt a diagonal to another; of four corners, those diagonal to another

CanadaUSDiagonally across from

Cater-corner: located diagonally in relation to something, especially across an intersection

ExampleThe Empire State Building and the old Altman's Department store are catercorner, at Fifth Avenue and East 34th Street, with the ESB at the…none recorded
Pronunciation/ˈkatəˌkɔːnə/ /ˈkeɪtəˌkɔːnə/ /ˈkætəˌkɔɹnɚ//ˈkɪtikɔːnə/ /ˈkɪɾiˌkwoɹnəɹ/
In writingnot counted (the list counts single words)not counted (the list counts single words)

Sources: cater-corner and kitty corner in the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

Every current meaning of cater-corner and kitty corner

cater-corner

  1. 1

    adjective CanadaUSAt a diagonal to another; of four corners, those diagonal to another

    The Empire State Building and the old Altman's Department store are catercorner, at Fifth Avenue and East 34th Street, with the ESB at the southwest, and Altman's at the northeast

  2. 2

    adverb CanadaUSDiagonally across from

    Altman's is sited catercorner to the ESB

kitty corner

  1. 1

    adjective Alternative form of cater-corner

  2. 2

    adverb Cater-corner: located diagonally in relation to something, especially across an intersection

  3. 3

    adjective Alternative form of kitty-corner

  4. 4

    adverb Alternative form of kitty-corner

Source: the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0); obsolete, archaic, dialect and rare senses left out.

The words