CabavscábalaWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: Caba is a name, cábala is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“Caba” is a name and “cábala” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#17,367
“Caba” frequency rank
#44,676
“cábala” frequency rank
62043
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Caba cábala
Definition Apellido. Tradición oral de la interpretación del Tanaj (biblia hebrea), originada en las comunidades judías de la España y Francia medievales, y luego adoptada y transformada por distintas escuelas teosóficas.

Where the eye mixes Caba and cábala

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
Caba
6 ch
cábala

Look-alike desk: Caba vs cábala

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: Caba is [ˈkaβ̞a] while cábala is [ˈkaβ̞ala]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (name vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62043, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Caba is recorded at frequency rank #17,367, classified as aname, pronounced [ˈkaβ̞a]. cábala is at rank #44,676, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkaβ̞ala].

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 62043, this pair ranks #53,364 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Caba vs cábala

Shared letters: abc. Private to "Caba": -. Private to "cábala": .

"Caba" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cábala" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Cabaacba · caab · cabba · cbaa · ccaba

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Caba" for "cábala" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "Caba" is a name and "cábala" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "Caba" vs "cábala" - which ranks higher?
"Caba" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,367 in our Spanish list, against #44,676 for "cábala". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "Caba" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cábala" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #53,364 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Caba" and "cábala" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cábala vs casará". 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 #53,364 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