Which to use
“cast” and “castor” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,723
- “cast” frequency rank
- #16,007
- “castor” frequency rank
- 33730
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cast | castor |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | arremesso | roedor semi-aquáticos da família Castoridae, nativo da América do Norte e da Europa |
Where the eye mixes cast and castor
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cast runs 4 letters (CVCC) against castor's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: cast vs castor
A purely visual mix-up. cast (/kæst/) and castor (/kɐsˈtoɾ/) 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) - “cast” sits inside “castor”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33730, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cast is recorded at frequency rank #17,723, classified as anoun, pronounced /kæst/. castor is at rank #16,007, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɐsˈtoɾ/.
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 33730, this pair ranks #33,698 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cast vs castor
Shared letters: acst. Private to "cast": -. Private to "castor": or.
"cast" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "castor" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cast" for "castor" ever safe?
Frequency check: "cast" vs "castor" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "cast" and "castor" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cast" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "castor" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #33,698 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cast" and "castor" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "castor vs coautor". 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 #33,698 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.