CabavsCeaTell them apart

Which to use

“Caba” and “Cea” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#17,367
“Caba” frequency rank
#32,129
“Cea” frequency rank
49496
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Caba Cea
Definition Apellido. Apellido.

Where the eye mixes Caba and Cea

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

4 ch
Caba
3 ch
Cea

Look-alike desk: Caba vs Cea

A purely visual mix-up. Caba ([ˈkaβ̞a]) and Cea ([ˈsea]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49496, 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]. Cea is at rank #32,129, tagged as aname, pronounced [ˈsea].

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 49496, this pair ranks #108,516 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of Caba vs Cea

Shared letters: ac. Private to "Caba": b. Private to "Cea": e.

"Caba" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "Cea" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Cabaacba · caab · cabba · cbaa · ccaba

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "Caba" and "Cea" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkaβ̞a] versus [ˈsea]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "Caba" or "Cea"?
"Caba" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,367 in our Spanish list, against #32,129 for "Cea". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Caba" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Cea" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #108,516 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Caba" and "Cea" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Cea 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 #108,516 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