cabovscathWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“cabo” and “cath” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#40,649
“cabo” frequency rank
#40,167
“cath” frequency rank
80816
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cabo cath
Definition Cap. Chat (animal).

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set cabo and cath apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch
cabo
4 ch
cath

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. cabo (\ˈka.βo\) and cath (\kaːθ\) 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 80816, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cabo is recorded at frequency rank #40,649, classified as anoun, pronounced \ˈka.βo\. cath is at rank #40,167, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kaːθ\.

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 80816, this pair ranks #20,077 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cabo vs cath

Shared letters: ac. Private to "cabo": bo. Private to "cath": ht.

"cabo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cath" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caboacbo · cabbo · caob · cbao · ccabo
  • cathacth · cathh · catth · ccath · ctah

Frequency comparison

cabo#40,649
cath#40,167

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cabo" and "cath" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\ˈka.βo\ versus \kaːθ\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cabo" or "cath"?
"cath" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40,167 in our French list, against #40,649 for "cabo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering cabo vs cath

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “cabo” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list FrequencyWords open word-frequency list