cascade
/kæsˈkeɪd/
"cascade" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cascade” is a moderately-common English word, ranked #15,582 in English word frequency and used as a noun.
- #15,582
- frequency rank, English
- 7
- letters
- 10
- tracked misspellings
- 1
- confusable pair
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - A waterfall or series of small waterfalls.
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 | cascade |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kæsˈkeɪd/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #15,582 |
| Misspellings tracked | 10 |
| Confusable pairs | 1 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cascade” sits in English frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The English entry for cascade is 7 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /kæsˈkeɪd/. Corpus data places it at rank #15,582 in overall English word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 10 likely wrong-spelling variants for cascade, with forms such as "acscade", "cacsade", and "casacde". 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 1 confusable-pair relationship, "Cascades", a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
Etymologically, the entry records: From French cascade, from Italian cascata, from cascare (“to fall”), from Vulgar Latin *cāsicāre, derived from Latin cadere, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱh₂d-. The correct English form is cascade, spelled C-A-S-C-A-D-E.
Definition
- 1A waterfall or series of small waterfalls.
- 2A stream or sequence of a thing or things occurring as if falling like a cascade.
- 3A series of electrical (or other types of) components, the output of any one being connected to the input of the next.
- 4A pattern typically performed with an odd number of props, where each prop is caught by the opposite hand.
- 5A sequence of absurd short messages posted to a newsgroup by different authors, each one responding to the most recent message and quoting the entire sequence to that point (with ever-increasing indentation).
- 6A hairpiece for women consisting of curled locks or a bun attached to a firm base, used to create the illusion of fuller hair.
- 7A series of reactions in which the product of one becomes a reactant in the next
Etymology
From French cascade, from Italian cascata, from cascare (“to fall”), from Vulgar Latin *cāsicāre, derived from Latin cadere, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *ḱh₂d-.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: acscade,cacsade,casacde,cascadde,cascaed,casccade,cascdae,casscade,ccascade,csacade
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of cascade - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
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 “cascade”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct English spelling is C-A-S-C-A-D-E - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /kæsˈkeɪd/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “Cascades” - see the side-by-side comparison. cascade vs Cascades
- 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.