cavevschaseConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#17,725
“cave” frequency rank
#10,327
“chase” frequency rank
28052
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cave chase
Definition pavimento de uma casa abaixo do leito da rua caçada

Where the eye mixes cave and chase

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

4 ch
cave
5 ch
chase

Look-alike desk: cave vs chase

A purely visual mix-up. cave (/ˈka.vɨ/) 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 28052, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cave is recorded at frequency rank #17,725, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈka.vɨ/. 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 28052, this pair ranks #40,823 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cave vs chase

Shared letters: ace. Private to "cave": v. Private to "chase": hs.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caveacve · caev · cavve · ccave · cvae
  • chasecahse · cchase · chaes · chasse · chhase · chsae · hcase

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cave" and "chase" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈka.vɨ/ versus /tʃeɪs/, SAMPA: /tSeIs/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cave" or "chase"?
"chase" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,327 in our Portuguese list, against #17,725 for "cave". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cave" 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 #40,823 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cave" and "chase" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chase vs chess". 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 #40,823 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