cadenavscaseraWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: cadena is a noun, casera is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cadena” is a noun and “casera” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,539
“cadena” frequency rank
#13,405
“casera” frequency rank
14944
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cadena casera
Definition Serie de objetos entrelazados uno después de otro, especialmente eslabones metálicos. Forma del femenino singular de casero.

Where the eye mixes cadena and casera

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

6 ch
cadena
6 ch
casera

Why the eye confuses cadena with casera

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cadena is [kaˈð̞ena] while casera is [kaˈseɾa]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14944, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cadena is recorded at frequency rank #1,539, classified as anoun, pronounced [kaˈð̞ena]. casera is at rank #13,405, tagged as anadj, pronounced [kaˈseɾa].

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 14944, this pair ranks #282,110 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cadena vs casera

Shared letters: ace. Private to "cadena": dn. Private to "casera": rs.

"cadena" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "casera" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cadenaacdena · caddena · cadean · cadenna · cadnea · caedna · ccadena · cdaena
  • caseraacsera · cacera · caesra · casear · caserra · casrea · cassera · ccasera

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cadena" and "casera" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cadena" is a noun and "casera" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "cadena" or "casera" show up more?
"cadena" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,539 in our Spanish list, against #13,405 for "casera". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cadena" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "casera" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #282,110 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cadena" and "casera" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "casera vs cederá". 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 #282,110 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