catch
/kat͡ʃ/
"catch" is a 5-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“catch” has 8 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #1,418. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #1,418
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 2, 2026) - The act of seizing or capturing.
Corpus desk
Index EN-catch · catch · English
catch · rank #1,418 · 8 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #1,418
- LEN-MID 5 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 8 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH camera
Nearest frequency peer: camera (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “catch”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- agency
agency
98,586 corpus weight
- avoid
avoid
98,585 corpus weight
- camera
camera
98,584 corpus weight
- catch
catch
98,583 corpus weight
- cell
cell
98,582 corpus weight
- coast
coast
98,581 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “catch” sits against the nearest ranked English headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | catch |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kat͡ʃ/ |
| Letters | 5 |
| Frequency rank | #1,418 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “catch” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 8 spelling variants around catch (IPA /kat͡ʃ/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #1,418 among 5,599 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 22 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for catch, with forms such as "actch", "cacth", and "catcch". 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, "CTC", "cats", "cate", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Etymologically, the entry records: Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kap- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *kapyéti Proto-Indo-European *kaptós Proto-Italic *kaptos Vulgar Latin captus Proto-Indo-European *-yetider. Vulgar Latin -io Vulgar Latin *captiāre Old French chacierbo… The correct English form is catch, spelled C-A-T-C-H.
Definition
- 1The act of seizing or capturing.
- 2The act of catching an object in motion, especially a ball.
- 3The act of noticing, understanding or hearing.
- 4The game of catching a ball.
- 5Something which is captured or caught.
- 6A find, in particular a boyfriend or girlfriend or prospective spouse.
- 7A stopping mechanism, especially a clasp which stops something from opening.
- 8A hesitation in voice, caused by strong emotion.
- 9A concealed difficulty, especially in a deal or negotiation.
- 10A crick; a sudden muscle pain during unaccustomed positioning when the muscle is in use.
- 11A fragment of music or poetry.
- 12A state of readiness to capture or seize; an ambush.
- 13A crop which has germinated and begun to grow.
- 14A type of strong boat, usually having two masts; a ketch.
- 15A type of humorous round in which the voices gradually catch up with one another; usually sung by men and often having bawdy lyrics.
- 16The refrain; a line or lines of a song which are repeated from verse to verse.
- 17The act of catching a hit ball before it reaches the ground, resulting in an out.
- 18A player in respect of his catching ability; particularly one who catches well.
- 19The first contact of an oar with the water.
- 20A stoppage of breath, resembling a slight cough.
- 21Passing opportunities seized; snatches.
- 22A slight remembrance; a trace.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how catch appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
The catch of the perpetrator was the product of a year of police work.
The player made an impressive catch.
Etymology
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *kap- Proto-Indo-European *-yéti Proto-Indo-European *kapyéti Proto-Indo-European *kaptós Proto-Italic *kaptos Vulgar Latin captus Proto-Indo-European *-yetider. Vulgar Latin -io Vulgar Latin *captiāre Old French chacierbor. Anglo-Norman cachierbor. Middle English cacchen English catch From Middle English cacchen, from Anglo-Norman cachier, variant of Old French chacier, from Late Latin captiāre, from Latin captāre, frequentative of capere. Akin to Modern French chasser (from Old French chacier) and Spanish cazar, and thus a doublet of chase. Compare ketch. Via PIE cognate with have. Displaced Middle English fangen ("to catch"; > Modern English fang (verb)), from Old English fōn (“to seize, take”); Middle English lacchen ("to catch" and heavily displaced Modern English latch), from Old English læċċan. The verb became irregular, possibly under the influence of the semantically similar latch (from Old English læċċan), whose past tense was lahte, lauhte, laught (Old English læhte), until becoming regularised in Modern English.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- actch
- cacth
- catcch
- catchh
- cathc
- cattch
- ccatch
- ctach
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of catch - 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.
PlainSpell is rendered directly from structured Wiktionary extracts and open word-frequency lists, no number is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error. Data current as of September 2, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "catch", 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 (8 here; floor ≥5).
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.