caterervscatersWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#40,167
“caterer” frequency rank
#25,701
“caters” frequency rank
65868
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caterer caters
Definition A person employed to obtain and maintain the storage of provisions, especially food. bell changes rung on nine bells

Letter map: caterer vs caters

Shared letters muted; letters that set caterer and caters apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

7 ch
caterer
6 ch
caters

Pair insight - caterer / caters

caterer and caters are indexed as a confusable English pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65868, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

caterer is recorded at frequency rank #40,167, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkeɪtəɹɚ/. 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 65868, this pair ranks #70,677 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of caterer vs caters

Shared letters: acert. Private to "caterer": -. Private to "caters": s.

"caterer" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "caters" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • catereracterer · caetrer · cateerr · catererr · caterre · caterrer · catreer · catterer
  • catersacters · caetrs · caterrs · caterss · catesr · catres · catters · ccaters

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "caterer" and "caters" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "caterer" vs "caters" - which ranks higher?
"caters" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,701 in our English list, against #40,167 for "caterer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "caterer" vs "caters" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "caterer" 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 #70,677 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caterer" and "caters" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "carer vs caterer". 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 #70,677 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