Which to use
“caught” is an adjective and “court” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,326
- “caught” frequency rank
- #370
- “court” frequency rank
- 1696
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | caught | court |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Of the method of being out in which the striker hits the ball and a fielder catches it. | An enclosed space; a courtyard; an uncovered area shut in by the walls of a building, or by different buildings; also, a space opening from a street and nearly surrounded by houses; a blind alley. |
Same sound, different letters: caught vs court
Muted letters are shared; highlighted letters are the only spelling cue when pronunciation matches. Shared run: 3 letters.
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
Say them out loud and nothing separates them: caught and court carry the same recorded pronunciation, /kɔːt/. Grammar is what tells them apart: one is anadjective, the other anoun, so most sentences will only accept one of them. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1696, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
caught is recorded at frequency rank #1,326, classified as anadj, pronounced /kɔːt/. court is at rank #370, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɔːt/.
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 1696, this pair ranks #526,875 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of caught vs court
Shared letters: ctu. Private to "caught": agh. Private to "court": or.
"caught" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCC · "court" · 5 letters · shape CVVCC