castvschatWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: cast is a verb, chat is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cast” is a verb and “chat” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#24,771
“cast” frequency rank
#5,931
“chat” frequency rank
30702
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cast chat
Definition Arrojar, lanzar, tirar. Conversación escrita por internet realizada de manera instantánea mediante el uso de un software entre dos o más usuarios.

Where the eye mixes cast and chat

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
cast
4 ch
chat

Look-alike desk: cast vs chat

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cast is /kɑːst/ while chat is [ˈt͡ʃat̪]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30702, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cast is recorded at frequency rank #24,771, classified as averb, pronounced /kɑːst/. chat is at rank #5,931, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈt͡ʃat̪].

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 30702, this pair ranks #210,710 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cast vs chat

Shared letters: act. Private to "cast": s. Private to "chat": h.

"cast" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "chat" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • castacst · casst · castt · ccast · csat
  • chatcaht · cchat · chatt · chhat · chta · hcat

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cast" for "chat" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cast" is a verb and "chat" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "cast" or "chat" show up more?
"chat" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,931 in our Spanish list, against #24,771 for "cast". 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 "cast" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chat" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #210,710 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cast" and "chat" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cast vs curt". 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 #210,710 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