cadevscañoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#45,173
“cade” frequency rank
#12,544
“caño” frequency rank
57717
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cade caño
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. Tubo de metal, vidrio o barro, a modo de cañuto.

Where the eye mixes cade and caño

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

4 ch
cade
4 ch
caño

Why the eye confuses cade with caño

A purely visual mix-up. cade ([ˈkað̞e]) and caño ([ˈkaɲo]) 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 57717, 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]. caño is at rank #12,544, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkaɲo].

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 57717, this pair ranks #69,370 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cade vs caño

Shared letters: ac. Private to "cade": de. Private to "caño": .

"cade" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "caño" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cadeacde · cadde · caed · ccade · cdae

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cade" for "caño" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkað̞e] versus [ˈkaɲo]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "cade" or "caño" show up more?
"caño" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,544 in our Spanish list, against #45,173 for "cade". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cade" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "caño" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #69,370 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cade" and "caño" 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 #69,370 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