Which to use
“cath” and “cathos” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #40,167
- “cath” frequency rank
- #30,937
- “cathos” frequency rank
- 71104
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cath | cathos |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Chat (animal). | Pluriel de catho. |
Where the eye mixes cath and cathos
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cath runs 4 letters (CVCC) against cathos's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: cath vs cathos
A purely visual mix-up. cath (\kaːθ\) and cathos (\ka.to\) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “cath” sits inside “cathos”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71104, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cath is recorded at frequency rank #40,167, classified as anoun, pronounced \kaːθ\. cathos is at rank #30,937, tagged as anoun, pronounced \ka.to\.
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 71104, this pair ranks #48,789 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cath vs cathos
Shared letters: acht. Private to "cath": -. Private to "cathos": os.
"cath" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "cathos" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cath" for "cathos" ever safe?
Frequency check: "cath" vs "cathos" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "cath" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cathos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #48,789 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cath" and "cathos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "canto vs cath". 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 #48,789 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.