Which to use
“kana” and “kata” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #36,210
- “kana” frequency rank
- #37,055
- “kata” frequency rank
- 73265
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | kana | kata |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | The hiragana and katakana syllabaries. These are made up of characters that represent individual syllables, which are used to write Japanese words and particles. Kana are derived from kanji. | Any of a sequence of positions and movements used in many martial arts. |
Where the eye mixes kana and kata
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. kana and kata follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between kana and kata
A purely visual mix-up. kana (/ˈkɑːnə/) and kata (/ˈkætə/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - n in “kana” becomes t in “kata”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73265, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
kana is recorded at frequency rank #36,210, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɑːnə/. kata is at rank #37,055, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkætə/.
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 73265, this pair ranks #40,188 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of kana vs kata
Shared letters: ak. Private to "kana": n. Private to "kata": t.
"kana" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "kata" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "kana" for "kata" ever safe?
Which is more common, "kana" or "kata"?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "kana" and "kata" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "kana" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "kata" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #40,188 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "kana" and "kata" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kana vs kno". 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 #40,188 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.