cave

\kav\

/\kav\/ adj

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“cave” has 5 generated spelling variants in the French index at frequency #4,919. The variants make it a useful spelling check.

#4,919
frequency rank, French
8,609
“C” headwords
5
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Creux, non plein.

Corpus desk

Index FR-cave · cave · French

cave · rank #4,919 · 5 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-COMMON #4,919
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-MID 5 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,609
  • PHOTO-FINISH changent

Nearest frequency peer: changent (+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.

Pairs de rang près de l'aimant d'erreurs « cave »

Même bande de rareté: utile si une faute tombe sur un lemme voisin

corpus weight

What this shows « cave » siège parmi ces pairs FrequencyWords; la profondeur des fautes est suivie à part dans le graphique d'édition.

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).

cave vs ce
50% similar
cave vs CV
0% similar
cave vs clé
25% similar

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

Key facts for cave
PropertyValue
Headwordcave
LanguageFrench
Part of speechAdjective
IPA\kav\
Letters4
Frequency rank#4,919
Misspellings tracked5
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Fréquence de l'aimant d'erreurs « cave »

De gauche à droite: le peu qui porte la parole quotidienne, puis la longue queue quasi invisible.cavese place ici:

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

L'échelle est logarithmique (chaque tic ≈ 10× plus rare). Dans la même bande de rareté figurent « changent » (#4,920), « cathédrale » (#4,917), « chérie » (#4,921). Parmi 8,609 lemmes en « C », « cave » est au #4,919. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

A misspelling magnet

The generator records 5 spelling variants around cave (IPA \kav\), anadjective. Corpus frequency is #4,919 among 8,609 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 3 senses, so context still picks the gloss.

Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for cave, with forms such as "acve", "caev", and "cavve". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ce", "CV", "clé", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct French form is cave, spelled C-A-V-E.

Definition

  1. 1
    Creux, non plein.
  2. 2
    Enfoncé.
  3. 3
    Idiot.

Recorded use

Wiktionary examples

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

  1. Lune cave, mois lunaire de 28/29 jours, par opposition aux mois pleins de 30/31 jours.
  2. Année cave, année lunaire de 353 jours ou année incomplète.

Synonyms

gnochon

Antonyms

à fleur de peau

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • acve
  • caev
  • cavve
  • ccave
  • cvae

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of cave - expressed in single-character edits (insert, delete, or swap one letter). Bigger bars stand out at a glance; a one-edit slip is the hardest to catch.

acve2caev2cavve1ccave1cvae2
Edit distance from "cave"

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 "cave"?
"cave" is spelled C-A-V-E. The IPA pronunciation is \kav\.
What does "cave" mean?
As an adjective, "cave" means: Creux, non plein.
What words are commonly confused with "cave"?
"cave" is commonly confused with "ce", "CV", "clé". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "cave"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "cave" is \kav\. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "cave" come from?
"cave" is a French word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
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 "cave", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked French headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

case#4,916ford#4,941play#4,969Jazz#4,868

Similar misspelling depth

Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (5 here; floor ≥5).

panne5 variantscuir5 variantsSonne5 variantsbrut5 variants

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list