catsvscausaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#31,281
“cats” frequency rank
#340
“causa” frequency rank
31621
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cats causa
Definition plural de cat aquilo ou aquele que ocasiona um acontecimento ou faz que uma coisa exista

Where the eye mixes cats and causa

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

4 ch
cats
5 ch
causa

Why the eye confuses cats with causa

A purely visual mix-up. cats (/kæts/) and causa (/ˈkaw.zɐ/) 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 31621, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cats is recorded at frequency rank #31,281, classified as anoun, pronounced /kæts/. causa is at rank #340, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkaw.zɐ/.

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 31621, this pair ranks #36,407 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cats vs causa

Shared letters: acs. Private to "cats": t. Private to "causa": u.

"cats" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "causa" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • catsacts · catss · catts · ccats · ctas
  • causaacusa · casua · cauas · caussa · ccausa · cuasa

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cats" and "causa" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/kæts/ versus /ˈkaw.zɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cats" vs "causa" - which ranks higher?
"causa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #340 in our Portuguese list, against #31,281 for "cats". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "cats" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "causa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #36,407 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cats" and "causa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cactus vs cats". 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 #36,407 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