cavavscitaTell them apart

Which to use

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

#19,946
“cava” frequency rank
#1,470
“cita” frequency rank
21416
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cava cita
Definition Cueva. Reunión de personas cuyo encuentro ha sido establecido anteriormente de común acuerdo.

Where the eye mixes cava and cita

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

4 ch
cava
4 ch
cita

Visual trap between cava and cita

A purely visual mix-up. cava ([ˈkaβ̞a]) and cita ([ˈsit̪a]) 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 21416, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cava is recorded at frequency rank #19,946, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkaβ̞a]. cita is at rank #1,470, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈsit̪a].

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 21416, this pair ranks #255,038 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cava vs cita

Shared letters: ac. Private to "cava": v. Private to "cita": it.

"cava" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cita" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cavaacva · caav · cavva · ccava · cvaa
  • citaccita · ciat · citta · ctia · icta

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cava" for "cita" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkaβ̞a] versus [ˈsit̪a]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "cava" or "cita" show up more?
"cita" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,470 in our Spanish list, against #19,946 for "cava". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cava" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cita" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #255,038 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cava" and "cita" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cava vs ceba". 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 #255,038 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