catvscatchConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#7,740
“cat” frequency rank
#27,392
“catch” frequency rank
35132
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cat catch
Definition gato (Felis catus) captura

Where the eye mixes cat and catch

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

3 ch
cat
5 ch
catch

Look-alike desk: cat vs catch

A purely visual mix-up. cat (/kʰaʰt̪/) and catch (/kætʃ/, /kɛtʃ/) 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) - “cat” sits inside “catch”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35132, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cat is recorded at frequency rank #7,740, classified as anoun, pronounced /kʰaʰt̪/. catch is at rank #27,392, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kætʃ/, /kɛtʃ/.

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 35132, this pair ranks #31,960 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cat vs catch

Shared letters: act. Private to "cat": -. Private to "catch": h.

"cat" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "catch" · 5 letters · shape CVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • catchactch · cacth · catcch · catchh · cathc · cattch · ccatch · ctach

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cat" and "catch" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/kʰaʰt̪/ versus /kætʃ/, /kɛtʃ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cat" vs "catch" - which ranks higher?
"cat" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,740 in our Portuguese list, against #27,392 for "catch". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "cat" and "catch" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cat" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "catch" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #31,960 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cat" and "catch" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cacho vs catch". 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 #31,960 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list