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PlainSpell

cage

/keɪd͡ʒ/noun, verb

cage is spelled C-A-G-E: 4 letters and one syllable. It appears 13 times per million words in written English, the 5,778th most frequent word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). As a noun, cage means “An enclosure made of spaced bars, normally to hold animals while providing some ventilation” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). The plural of cage is cages.

How many letters and syllables are in cage?

Letters4: C-A-G-E
Syllables1 (from its American pronunciation)
In writing13 times per million words; the 5,778th most frequent word form
Wrong spellings searchednone measured in search

Sources: letters and syllables from the English Wiktionary's hyphenation or pronunciation and the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary; written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How common is cage?

Cage appears 13 times per million words in written English, the 5,778th most frequent word form in the list.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

How do you pronounce cage?

  • /keɪd͡ʒ/

Cage has one syllable (counted from its American pronunciation in the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary).

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Recordings: En-us-cage.ogg, Wikimedia Commons (author and licence on each file's page).

Forms of cage

  • cages plural, present, singular, he/she/it
  • kage
  • caging participle, present
  • caged participle, past

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What does cage mean?

The meanings the English Wiktionary records, quoted as written there (source below).

noun

  1. 1

    An enclosure made of spaced bars, normally to hold animals while providing some ventilation.

    We keep a bird in a cage.

  2. 2

    The passenger compartment of a lift.

  3. 3

    The goal.

  4. 4

    Short for roll cage, a protective structure around the passenger compartment of a vehicle.

  5. 5

    USslangSynonym of automobile.

  6. 6

    Something that hinders freedom.

  7. 7

    slangA prison or prison cell.

  8. 8

    The area from which competitors throw a discus or hammer.

verb

  1. 1

    To confine in a cage; to put into and keep in a cage.

  2. 2

    slangTo imprison.

    The serial killer was caged for life.

  3. 3

    To restrict someone's movement or creativity.

  4. 4

    To immobilize an artificial horizon.

    To prevent damage to its gimbal mountings during extreme aerobatic maneuvers, the navball should be caged before the start of a display sequence.

  5. 5

    To track individual responses to direct mail, either (advertising) to maintain and develop mailing lists or (politics) to identify people who are not eligible to vote because they do not reside at the registered addresses.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

Cage in Spanish, French, German and Portuguese

LanguageWords
Frenchcage (enclosure), encager (to put into a cage)
GermanKäfig (enclosure)
Portuguesegaiola, jaula (enclosure), engaiolar (to put into a cage)
Spanishjaula, gayola (enclosure), enjaular (to put into a cage), cabina (lift compartment)

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract). Translations are Wiktionary's, by sense; a linked word has its own PlainSpell page.

Where does cage come from?

From Middle English cage, from Old French cage, from Latin cavea. Doublet of cadge and cavea and related to jail.

Source: English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org (Wiktextract).

What to look up after cage