cave
/keɪv/
"cave" is a 4-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“cave” has 5 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #5,108. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #5,108
- frequency rank, English
- 5,599
- “C” headwords
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - A large, naturally-occurring cavity formed underground or in the face of a cliff or a hillside.
Corpus desk
Index EN-cave · cave · English
cave · rank #5,108 · 5 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #5,108
- LEN-MID 4 letters
- VOW-2 2 vowels
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-MID 5 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 5,599
- PHOTO-FINISH catching
Nearest frequency peer: catching (-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 “cave”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- bug
bug
94,896 corpus weight
- caring
caring
94,895 corpus weight
- catching
catching
94,894 corpus weight
- cave
cave
94,893 corpus weight
- cheating
cheating
94,892 corpus weight
- chronic
chronic
94,891 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “cave” 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 | cave |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /keɪv/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #5,108 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cave” sits in English frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 5 spelling variants around cave (IPA /keɪv/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #5,108 among 5,599 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 12 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for cave, with forms such as "acve", "caev", and "cavve". 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, "CE", "CV", "cue", 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 Middle English cave, borrowed from Old French cave, from Latin cava (“cavity”), from cavus (“hollow”). Cognate with Tocharian B kor (“throat”), Albanian cup (“odd, uneven”), Ancient Greek κύαρ (kúar, “eye of needle, earhole”), Old Armenian սոր (sor, “h… The correct English form is cave, spelled C-A-V-E.
Definition
- 1A large, naturally-occurring cavity formed underground or in the face of a cliff or a hillside.
- 2A hole, depression, or gap in earth or rock, whether natural or man-made.
- 3A storage cellar, especially for wine or cheese.
- 4A place of retreat, such as a man cave.
- 5A naturally-occurring cavity in bedrock which is large enough to be entered by an adult.
- 6A shielded area where nuclear experiments can be carried out.
- 7Debris, particularly broken rock, which falls into a drill hole and interferes with drilling.
- 8A collapse or cave-in.
- 9The vagina.
- 10A group that breaks from a larger political party or faction on a particular issue.
- 11Any hollow place, or part; a cavity.
- 12A code cave.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how cave appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
We found a cave on the mountainside where we could take shelter.
The preposterous altruism too![…]Resist not evil. It is an insane immolation of self—as bad intrinsically as fakirs stabbing themselves or anchorites warping their spines in caves scarcely large enough for a fair-sized dog.
Etymology
From Middle English cave, borrowed from Old French cave, from Latin cava (“cavity”), from cavus (“hollow”). Cognate with Tocharian B kor (“throat”), Albanian cup (“odd, uneven”), Ancient Greek κύαρ (kúar, “eye of needle, earhole”), Old Armenian սոր (sor, “hole”), Sanskrit शून्य (śūnya, “empty, barren, zero”). Displaced native Old English sċræf. More at cavum, cavus and cage.
Synonyms
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- acve
- caev
- cavve
- ccave
- cvae
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of cave - 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.
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 3, 2026. Primary sources: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) and FrequencyWords.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "cave"?
What does "cave" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "cave"?
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "cave", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).
What to do next
You've looked up "cave". Here's where to go from here.
- "cave" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "CE". View pair
- 5 edit-distance misspelling variants are generated for spell-check research on this headword. See variants
- Usage frequency rank #5,108 among English headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more English words in the "C" letter cohort. C–Z browse
- PlainSpell rotates a curated Word of the Day from the English corpus, a passive way to discover vocabulary. Word of the Day
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.