cape vs chase, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“cape” and “chase” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#17,721
“cape” frequency rank: #10,327
“chase” frequency rank: 28048
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	cape	chase
Definition	cabo	caçada

Where the eye mixes cape and chase

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch

cape

5 ch

chase

Look-alike desk: cape vs chase

A purely visual mix-up. cape (/keɪp/, /keIp/) and chase (/tʃeɪs/, SAMPA: /tSeIs/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28048, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cape is recorded at frequency rank #17,721, classified as anoun, pronounced /keɪp/, /keIp/. chase is at rank #10,327, tagged as anoun, pronounced /tʃeɪs/, SAMPA: /tSeIs/.

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 28048, this pair ranks #40,829 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cape vs chase

Shared letters: ace. Private to "cape": p. Private to "chase": hs.

"cape" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "chase" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

cape ← acpe · caep · cappe · ccape · cpae
chase ← cahse · cchase · chaes · chasse · chhase · chsae · hcase

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cape" and "chase" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (/keɪp/, /keIp/ versus /tʃeɪs/, SAMPA: /tSeIs/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "cape" or "chase"?

"chase" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,327 in our Portuguese list, against #17,721 for "cape". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

Full dictionary entry for "cape" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "chase" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #40,829 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"cape" and "chase" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cape vs caspa". 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 #40,829 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.