cat

\kat\

/\kat\/ noun

The verdict

“cat” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #8,211) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#8,211
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Variante de qat.

Corpus desk

Index FR-cat · cat · French

cat · rank #8,211 · 0 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #8,211
  • LEN-MID 3 letters
  • VOW-1 1 vowel
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH chauds

Nearest frequency peer: chauds (+1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Voisins de fréquence du confusable « cat »

Pairs de poids proche dans le corpus, séparés des confusables ci-dessous

corpus weight

What this shows Les barres placent « cat » face aux lemmes français les plus proches par rang, pas un reprint du bureau des confusables.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

cat vs ce
33% similar
cat vs ci
33% similar
cat vs co
33% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for cat
PropertyValue
Headwordcat
LanguageFrench
Part of speechNoun
IPA\kat\
Letters3
Frequency rank#8,211
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rang de corpus près des confusables de « cat »

Cette échelle va du noyau du français courant (gauche) jusqu'à la traîne des formes rares (droite).catse place ici:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

L'axe est logarithmique: chaque tic marque environ dix fois moins de fréquence. Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « chauds » (#8,212), « bush » (#8,209), « cheville » (#8,213). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « cat » est au #8,211. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for cat is neighbouring look-alikes ("ce", "ci", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced \kat\. Frequency #8,211 among 8,609 “C” headwords. Gloss: "Variante de qat.".

Zero misspellings are on record for cat in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ce", "ci", "co", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct French form is cat, spelled C-A-T.

Definition

  1. 1
    Variante de qat.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

These source excerpts show how cat appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Arrivé le matin, ayant tout juste pris le temps de se délester de son rapport verbal, Carlier s’était couché, rendu, ayant à compenser deux nuits blanches passées, en plus de la journée intercalaire, à déterrer la B 144 qui, sous la diligente impulsion d’un indigène bourré de cat, était allée, toutes bielles trépignantes, donner du nez dans un éboulis de…
  2. En Éthiopie, au Yémen et aux Somalies, un petit arbuste fait l’objet d'un important commerce : le cat (Catha edulis Célastracées).

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 French corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "cat"?
"cat" is spelled C-A-T. The IPA pronunciation is \kat\.
What does "cat" mean?
As a noun, "cat" means: Variante de qat.
What words are commonly confused with "cat"?
"cat" is commonly confused with "ce", "ci", "co". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "cat"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "cat" is \kat\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "cat" come from?
"cat" is a French word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar French words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "cat", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 3 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list