cabovscadeWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: cabo is a preposition, cade is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cabo” is a preposition and “cade” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#621
“cabo” frequency rank
#45,173
“cade” frequency rank
45794
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cabo cade
Definition Junto, al lado de. (Phytotoma rara) Ave de la familia Phytotomidae. Mide 19 cm. De plumaje en distintos tonos de pardo con secciones negruzcas, frente y corona pardo rojizas, pico corto y grueso de color negro e iris rojos, con dimorfismo sexual. Se alimenta de plantas y de brotes tiernos de árboles. Ave solitaria, que en algunas épocas del año forma pequeñas bandadas. Frecuenta campos, huertos y jardines.

Where the eye mixes cabo and cade

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. cabo and cade follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
cabo
4 ch
cade

Why the eye confuses cabo with cade

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cabo is [ˈkaβ̞o] while cade is [ˈkað̞e]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (preposition vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45794, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cabo is recorded at frequency rank #621, classified as aprep, pronounced [ˈkaβ̞o]. cade is at rank #45,173, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkað̞e].

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 45794, this pair ranks #129,420 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cabo vs cade

Shared letters: ac. Private to "cabo": bo. Private to "cade": de.

"cabo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cade" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cabo ← acbo · cabbo · caob · cavo · cbao · ccabo
  • cade ← acde · cadde · caed · ccade · cdae

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cabo" and "cade" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cabo" is a preposition and "cade" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "cabo" or "cade"?
"cabo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #621 in our Spanish list, against #45,173 for "cade". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cabo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cade" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #129,420 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cabo" and "cade" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cade vs catre". 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 #129,420 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