cable
/ˈkeɪ.bəl/
"cable" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cable” is a regularly-used English word, ranked #2,776 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #2,776
- frequency rank, English
- 5
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A long object used to make a physical connection.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cable |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkeɪ.bəl/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #2,776 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cable” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for cable is 5 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkeɪ.bəl/. Corpus data places it at rank #2,776 in overall English word frequency, indicating it appears regularly in written and spoken text. Wiktionary records 12 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for cable, with forms such as "acble", "cabble", and "cabel". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "cal", "CBE", "care", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: Recorded since c.1205 as Middle English cable, from Old Northern French cable, from Late Latin capulum (“lasso, rope, halter”), from Latin capiō (“to take, seize”). Use of the term "cable" to refer to the USD/GBP exchange rate originated in the mid-19th cen… The correct English form is cable, spelled C-A-B-L-E.
Definition
- 1A long object used to make a physical connection.
- 2A long object used to make a physical connection.
- 3A long object used to make a physical connection.
- 4A long object used to make a physical connection.
- 5A system for transmitting television or Internet services over a network of coaxial or fibreoptic cables.
- 6A system for transmitting television or Internet services over a network of coaxial or fibreoptic cables.
- 7A telegram, notably when sent by (submarine) telegraph cable.
- 8A unit of length equal to one tenth of a nautical mile.
- 9100 fathoms, 600 imperial feet, approximately 185 m.
- 10The currency pair British Pound against United States Dollar.
- 11A moulding, shaft of a column, or any other member of convex, rounded section, made to resemble the spiral twist of a rope.
- 12A textural pattern achieved by passing groups of stitches over one another.
Etymology
Recorded since c.1205 as Middle English cable, from Old Northern French cable, from Late Latin capulum (“lasso, rope, halter”), from Latin capiō (“to take, seize”). Use of the term "cable" to refer to the USD/GBP exchange rate originated in the mid-19th century, when the exchange rate began to be transmitted across the Atlantic by a submarine communications cable.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: acble,cabble,cabel,cablle,calbe,cbale,ccable,cible
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of cable - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “cable”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-A-B-L-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈkeɪ.bəl/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “cal” - see the side-by-side comparison. cable vs cal
- Browse more English words and confusable pairs in the same reference. English words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.