kanavsKathTell them apart

Quick tell: kana is a noun, Kath is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“kana” is a noun and “Kath” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#36,210
“kana” frequency rank
#35,374
“Kath” frequency rank
71584
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature kana Kath
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. A diminutive of the female given names Katherine, Kathleen, or related names.

Letter map: kana vs Kath

Shared letters muted; letters that set kana and Kath apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. kana (CVCV) and Kath (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
kana
4 ch
Kath

Grammar separator: kana vs Kath

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: kana is anoun and Kathaname. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71584, 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/. Kath is at rank #35,374, tagged as aname.

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 71584, this pair ranks #46,143 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of kana vs Kath

Shared letters: ak. Private to "kana": n. Private to "Kath": ht.

"kana" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Kath" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • kana ← akna · kaan · kanna · kkana · knaa
  • Kath ← akth · kaht · kathh · katth · kkath · ktah

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "kana" and "Kath" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "kana" is a noun and "Kath" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "kana" vs "Kath" - which ranks higher?
"Kath" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,374 in our English list, against #36,210 for "kana". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "kana" and "Kath".

  • Full dictionary entry for "kana" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Kath" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #46,143 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "kana" and "Kath" 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 #46,143 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