Which to use
“kana” and “kato” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #44,533
- “kana” frequency rank
- #47,407
- “kato” frequency rank
- 91940
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | kana | kato |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Caractère japonais qui note une more (et non pas forcément une syllabe). | Langue amérindienne de la famille athabascane parlée anciennement en Californie. |
Where the eye mixes kana and kato
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. kana and kato follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses kana with kato
A purely visual mix-up. kana (\ka.na\) and kato (\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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 91940, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
kana is recorded at frequency rank #44,533, classified as anoun, pronounced \ka.na\. kato is at rank #47,407, 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 91940, this pair ranks #3,394 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of kana vs kato
Shared letters: ak. Private to "kana": n. Private to "kato": ot.
"kana" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "kato" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "kana" for "kato" ever safe?
Frequency check: "kana" vs "kato" - 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 "kana" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "kato" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #3,394 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "kana" and "kato" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "kato vs kiko". 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 #3,394 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.