Which to use
“cates” and “caves” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #48,123
- “cates” frequency rank
- #11,354
- “caves” frequency rank
- 59477
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cates | caves |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Provisions; food; viands; especially, luxurious food; delicacies; dainties. | plural of cave |
Letter map: cates vs caves
Shared letters muted; letters that set cates and caves apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. cates and caves follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Pair insight - cates / caves
cates and caves 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 a single letter - t in “cates” becomes v in “caves”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59477, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cates is recorded at frequency rank #48,123, classified as anoun. caves is at rank #11,354, tagged as anoun, pronounced /keɪvz/.
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 59477, this pair ranks #105,933 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cates vs caves
Shared letters: aces. Private to "cates": t. Private to "caves": v.
"cates" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "caves" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cates" and "caves" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary English text, does "cates" or "caves" show up more?
Useful next steps
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "cates" and "caves".
- Full dictionary entry for "cates" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "caves" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #105,933 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cates" and "caves" 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 #105,933 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.