Which to use
“catered” is an adjective and “caters” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #25,314
- “catered” frequency rank
- #25,701
- “caters” frequency rank
- 51015
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | catered | caters |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Having catering provided | bell changes rung on nine bells |
Letter map: catered vs caters
Shared letters muted; letters that set catered and caters apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.
Role in the sentence - catered and caters
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: catered is anadjective and catersanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51015, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
catered is recorded at frequency rank #25,314, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈkeɪtəd/. caters is at rank #25,701, tagged as anoun.
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 51015, this pair ranks #169,132 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of catered vs caters
Shared letters: acert. Private to "catered": d. Private to "caters": s.
"catered" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC · "caters" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "catered" and "caters" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "catered" vs "caters" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pair "catered" vs "caters" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "catered" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "caters" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #169,132 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "catered" and "caters" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caters vs cates". 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 #169,132 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.