cavscacoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: ca is a intj, caco is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ca” is an intj and “caco” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,399
“ca” frequency rank
#45,790
“caco” frequency rank
50189
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ca caco
Definition Denota incredulidad o negación. Persona que tiene por costumbre u oficio el apropiarse de cosas que no le pertenecen.

Where the eye mixes ca and caco

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

2 ch
ca
4 ch
caco

Why the eye confuses ca with caco

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ca is [ˈka] while caco is [ˈkako]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “ca” sits inside “caco”, and the parts of speech differ too (intj vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50189, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ca is recorded at frequency rank #4,399, classified as anintj, pronounced [ˈka]. caco is at rank #45,790, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkako].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 50189, this pair ranks #104,598 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ca vs caco

Shared letters: ac. Private to "ca": -. Private to "caco": o.

"ca" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "caco" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cacoacco · cacco · caoc · ccaco · ccao

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ca" for "caco" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ca" is an intj and "caco" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "ca" or "caco" show up more?
"ca" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,399 in our Spanish list, against #45,790 for "caco". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "ca" and "caco" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ca" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "caco" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #104,598 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ca" and "caco" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caco vs cuc". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #104,598 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list