cabvscecWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: cab is a noun, cec is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cab” is a noun and “cec” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#22,504
“cab” frequency rank
#46,636
“cec” frequency rank
69140
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cab cec
Definition Taxi britannique. Aveugle.

Where the eye mixes cab and cec

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
cab
3 ch
cec

Look-alike desk: cab vs cec

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cab is \kab\ while cec is \ˈsek\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69140, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cab is recorded at frequency rank #22,504, classified as anoun, pronounced \kab\. cec is at rank #46,636, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ˈsek\.

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 69140, this pair ranks #56,306 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cab vs cec

Shared letters: c. Private to "cab": ab. Private to "cec": e.

"cab" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "cec" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cab" and "cec" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cab" is a noun and "cec" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary French text, does "cab" or "cec" show up more?
"cab" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,504 in our French list, against #46,636 for "cec". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cab" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cec" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #56,306 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cab" and "cec" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CCE vs cec". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #56,306 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list