cadevscadenaConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#45,173
“cade” frequency rank
#1,539
“cadena” frequency rank
46712
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cade cadena
Definition (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. Serie de objetos entrelazados uno después de otro, especialmente eslabones metálicos.

Where the eye mixes cade and cadena

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
cade
6 ch
cadena

Look-alike desk: cade vs cadena

A purely visual mix-up. cade ([ˈkað̞e]) and cadena ([kaˈð̞ena]) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “cade” sits inside “cadena”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46712, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cade is recorded at frequency rank #45,173, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkað̞e]. cadena is at rank #1,539, tagged as anoun, pronounced [kaˈð̞ena].

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 46712, this pair ranks #124,203 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cade vs cadena

Shared letters: acde. Private to "cade": -. Private to "cadena": n.

"cade" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cadena" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cadeacde · cadde · caed · ccade · cdae
  • cadenaacdena · caddena · cadean · cadenna · cadnea · caedna · ccadena · cdaena

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cade" and "cadena" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkað̞e] versus [kaˈð̞ena]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "cade" or "cadena" show up more?
"cadena" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,539 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.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cade" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cadena" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #124,203 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cade" and "cadena" 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 #124,203 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