Which to use
“cadet” is an adjective and “cast” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,358
- “cadet” frequency rank
- #28,476
- “cast” frequency rank
- 39834
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cadet | cast |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | (En parlant d’un fils ou d’une fille, d’un frère ou d’une sœur) Qui est né après l'aîné, qui est le deuxième, qui est le plus jeune. | Synonyme de transtypage. |
Where the eye mixes cadet and cast
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between cadet and cast
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cadet is \ka.dɛ\ while cast is \kast\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39834, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cadet is recorded at frequency rank #11,358, classified as anadj, pronounced \ka.dɛ\. cast is at rank #28,476, tagged as anoun, pronounced \kast\.
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 39834, this pair ranks #245,017 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cadet vs cast
Shared letters: act. Private to "cadet": de. Private to "cast": s.
"cadet" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "cast" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cadet" for "cast" ever safe?
In ordinary French text, does "cadet" or "cast" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "cadet" and "cast" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cadet" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cast" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #245,017 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cadet" and "cast" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cast vs casus". 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 #245,017 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.