cacao
/kəˈkaʊ/
"cacao" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cacao” has 6 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #34,414. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #34,414
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
- 6
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A tree, Theobroma cacao, whose seed is used to make chocolate.
Corpus desk
Index EN-cacao · cacao · English
cacao · rank #34,414 · 6 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #34,414
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 6 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH burgh
Nearest frequency peer: burgh (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “cacao”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- Broderick
Broderick
65,591 corpus weight
- Broughton
Broughton
65,590 corpus weight
- burgh
burgh
65,588 corpus weight
- cacao
cacao
65,587 corpus weight
- calypso
calypso
65,585 corpus weight
- capacitance
capacitance
65,584 corpus weight
What this shows “cacao” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
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 | cacao |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kəˈkaʊ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #34,414 |
| Misspellings tracked | 6 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “cacao”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 6 spelling variants around cacao (IPA /kəˈkaʊ/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #34,414 among 5,599 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 6 likely wrong-spelling variants for cacao, with forms such as "accao", "caaco", and "caccao". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "Cao", "CCA", "coca", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From Spanish cacao, from Classical Nahuatl cacahuatl. Doublet of cocoa. The correct English form is cacao, spelled C-A-C-A-O.
Definition
- 1A tree, Theobroma cacao, whose seed is used to make chocolate.
- 2The seed of this tree, the cocoa bean.
- 3Cocoa (hot drink).
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how cacao appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Therefore they left Port à Paix just as the first streaks of gray were appearing in the east, depending on a good hot cup of cacao and a couple of bananas to nourish them sufficiently until they could enjoy the breakfast that Dave would prepare for them at the end of their morning’s share of the day’s trip. […] “Doctor, we always say ‘cocoa’ in the north,…
Cacao was copiously used at their feasts, being colored with the red seeds of the achiote, or arnotto (Bixa orellana Linnæus), so that it resembled blood. At the festivals an intoxicating beer of corn was also copiously used and the rolled leaves of tobacco were smoked. […] And the Indians, both men and women, continued to drink the above-mentioned bevera…
Etymology
From Spanish cacao, from Classical Nahuatl cacahuatl. Doublet of cocoa.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- accao
- caaco
- caccao
- cacoa
- ccaao
- ccacao
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of cacao - 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
How do you spell "cacao"?
What does "cacao" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "cacao"?
How do you pronounce "cacao"?
What is the origin of the word "cacao"?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "cacao", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 5 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (6 here; floor ≥5).