caucevschanceTell them apart

Which to use

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

#15,038
“cauce” frequency rank
#9,084
“chance” frequency rank
24122
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cauce chance
Definition Lecho de los ríos y arroyos. Oportunidad.

Where the eye mixes cauce and chance

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cauce runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against chance's 6 (CCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
cauce
6 ch
chance

Visual trap between cauce and chance

A purely visual mix-up. cauce ([ˈkawse]) and chance ([ˈt͡ʃãnse]) 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 24122, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cauce is recorded at frequency rank #15,038, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkawse]. chance is at rank #9,084, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈt͡ʃãnse].

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 24122, this pair ranks #242,609 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cauce vs chance

Shared letters: ace. Private to "cauce": u. Private to "chance": hn.

"cauce" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "chance" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cauceacuce · cacue · caucce · cauec · ccauce · cuace
  • chancecahnce · cchance · chacne · chancce · chanec · channce · chanse · chhance

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cauce" and "chance" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkawse] versus [ˈt͡ʃãnse]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "cauce" or "chance" show up more?
"chance" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,084 in our Spanish list, against #15,038 for "cauce". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cauce" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chance" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #242,609 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cauce" and "chance" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cauce vs cuc". 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 #242,609 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