cabevscatsTell them apart

Which to use

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

#2,011
“cabe” frequency rank
#47,632
“cats” frequency rank
49643
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cabe cats
Definition Acción de atravesar la pierna en el camino de otro para hacerlo caer. Forma del plural de cat.

Where the eye mixes cabe and cats

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

4 ch
cabe
4 ch
cats

Why the eye confuses cabe with cats

A purely visual mix-up. cabe ([ˈkaβ̞e]) and cats (/kæts/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49643, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cabe is recorded at frequency rank #2,011, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkaβ̞e]. cats is at rank #47,632, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kæts/.

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 49643, this pair ranks #107,667 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cabe vs cats

Shared letters: ac. Private to "cabe": be. Private to "cats": st.

"cabe" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cats" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cabeacbe · cabbe · caeb · cbae · ccabe
  • catsacts · catss · catts · ccats · ctas

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cabe" and "cats" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkaβ̞e] versus /kæts/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "cabe" or "cats" show up more?
"cabe" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,011 in our Spanish list, against #47,632 for "cats". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cabe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cats" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #107,667 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cabe" and "cats" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "catre vs cats". 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 #107,667 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