cacovscadeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#45,790
“caco” frequency rank
#45,173
“cade” frequency rank
90963
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caco cade
Definition Persona que tiene por costumbre u oficio el apropiarse de cosas que no le pertenecen. (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 caco and cade

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. caco 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
caco
4 ch
cade

Visual trap between caco and cade

A purely visual mix-up. caco ([ˈkako]) and cade ([ˈkað̞e]) 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 90963, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

caco is recorded at frequency rank #45,790, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkako]. 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 90963, this pair ranks #2,244 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of caco vs cade

Shared letters: ac. Private to "caco": o. Private to "cade": de.

"caco" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cade" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caco ← acco · cacco · caoc · ccaco · ccao
  • cade ← acde · cadde · caed · ccade · cdae

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "caco" and "cade" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkako] versus [ˈkað̞e]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "caco" or "cade"?
"cade" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #45,173 in our Spanish list, against #45,790 for "caco". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "caco" 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 #2,244 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caco" and "cade" 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 #2,244 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