Which to use
“cates” is a noun and “caved” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #48,123
- “cates” frequency rank
- #29,586
- “caved” frequency rank
- 77709
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cates | caved |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Provisions; food; viands; especially, luxurious food; delicacies; dainties. | past participle of cave |
Letter map: cates vs caved
Shared letters muted; letters that set cates and caved apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.
Part-of-speech tell for cates / caved
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: cates is anoun and cavedaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77709, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cates is recorded at frequency rank #48,123, classified as anoun. 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 77709, this pair ranks #26,509 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cates vs caved
Shared letters: ace. Private to "cates": st. Private to "caved": dv.
"cates" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "caved" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "cates" and "caved" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary English text, does "cates" or "caved" show up more?
What to do next
You've compared "cates" and "caved". Here's where to go from here.
- Full dictionary entry for "cates" 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 #26,509 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cates" and "caved" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cates vs catty". 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 #26,509 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.