Which to use
“caco” and “café” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #45,790
- “caco” frequency rank
- #1,337
- “café” frequency rank
- 47127
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | caco | café |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Persona que tiene por costumbre u oficio el apropiarse de cosas que no le pertenecen. | Semilla del fruto del cafeto, rica en el estimulante cafeína, que se emplea tostada y molida para preparar una bebida con estas propiedades que se consume en casi todo el mundo. Es el segundo producto en volumen en el comercio internacional, solo superado por el petróleo. |
Where the eye mixes caco and café
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. caco and café follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses caco with café
A purely visual mix-up. caco ([ˈkako]) and café ([kaˈfe]) 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 47127, 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]. café is at rank #1,337, tagged as anoun, pronounced [kaˈfe].
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 47127, this pair ranks #121,774 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of caco vs café
Shared letters: ac. Private to "caco": o. Private to "café": fé.
"caco" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "café" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- caco ← acco · cacco · caoc · ccaco · ccao
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "caco" and "café" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Spanish text, does "caco" or "café" show up more?
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 "café" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #121,774 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "caco" and "café" 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 #121,774 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.