cadevscueConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#45,173
“cade” frequency rank
#35,969
“cue” frequency rank
81142
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cade cue
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. Señal que se emplea para marcar el inicio de una acción.

Where the eye mixes cade and cue

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

4 ch
cade
3 ch
cue

Visual trap between cade and cue

A purely visual mix-up. cade ([ˈkað̞e]) and cue (/kjuː/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81142, 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]. cue is at rank #35,969, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kjuː/.

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 81142, this pair ranks #10,767 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cade vs cue

Shared letters: ce. Private to "cade": ad. Private to "cue": u.

"cade" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cue" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cadeacde · cadde · caed · ccade · cdae

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cade" for "cue" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkað̞e] versus /kjuː/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cade" or "cue"?
"cue" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,969 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.

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 "cue" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #10,767 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cade" and "cue" 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 #10,767 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