catevscazaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#38,559
“cate” frequency rank
#3,386
“caza” frequency rank
41945
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cate caza
Definition Suspenso de un test, examen o asignatura. Acción o efecto de cazar.

Where the eye mixes cate and caza

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. cate and caza follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
cate
4 ch
caza

Why the eye confuses cate with caza

A purely visual mix-up. cate ([ˈkat̪e]) and caza ([ˈkasa]) 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 41945, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cate is recorded at frequency rank #38,559, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkat̪e]. caza is at rank #3,386, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkasa].

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 41945, this pair ranks #150,913 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cate vs caza

Shared letters: ac. Private to "cate": et. Private to "caza": z.

"cate" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "caza" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cateacte · caet · catte · ccate · ctae
  • cazaacza · caaz · cazza · ccaza · czaa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cate" for "caza" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkat̪e] versus [ˈkasa]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "cate" or "caza" show up more?
"caza" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,386 in our Spanish list, against #38,559 for "cate". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "cate" and "caza" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cate" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "caza" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #150,913 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cate" and "caza" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cate 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 #150,913 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