cake vs cite, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“cake” is a noun and “cite” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#26,293
“cake” frequency rank: #23,938
“cite” frequency rank: 50231
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	cake	cite
Definition	bolo	citar, fazer uma citação

Where the spellings diverge

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

4 ch

cake

4 ch

cite

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cake is /keɪk/ while cite is /saɪt/. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 50231, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cake is recorded at frequency rank #26,293, classified as anoun, pronounced /keɪk/. cite is at rank #23,938, tagged as averb, pronounced /saɪt/.

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 50231, this pair ranks #14,746 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cake vs cite

Shared letters: ce. Private to "cake": ak. Private to "cite": it.

"cake" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "cite" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

cake ← acke · caek · cakke · ccake · ckae
cite ← ccite · ciet · citte · ctie · icte

Frequency comparison

cake#26,293

cite#23,938

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cake" and "cite" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cake" is a noun and "cite" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "cake" or "cite"?

"cite" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,938 in our Portuguese list, against #26,293 for "cake". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering cake vs cite

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “cake”; for a verb, it's “cite”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “cake” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable