cadevscineWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#45,173
“cade” frequency rank
#961
“cine” frequency rank
46134
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cade cine
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. Arte de hacer películas para su exposición en salas de espectáculo.

Where the eye mixes cade and cine

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

4 ch
cade
4 ch
cine

Why the eye confuses cade with cine

A purely visual mix-up. cade ([ˈkað̞e]) and cine ([ˈsine]) 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 46134, 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]. cine is at rank #961, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈsine].

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 46134, this pair ranks #127,488 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cade vs cine

Shared letters: ce. Private to "cade": ad. Private to "cine": in.

"cade" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cine" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cadeacde · cadde · caed · ccade · cdae
  • cineccine · cinne · cnie · icne

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cade" for "cine" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkað̞e] versus [ˈsine]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "cade" or "cine" show up more?
"cine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #961 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

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 "cine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #127,488 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cade" and "cine" 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 #127,488 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