cabecear

verb

The verdict

“cabecear” is uncommon Portuguese (frequency #69,398 among 2,140 “C” headwords), classed as a verb. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#69,398
frequency rank, Portuguese
2,140
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - bater com a cabeça em algum objeto, com o objetivo de direcionar ou redirecionar a sua trajetória

Corpus desk

Index PT-cabecear · cabecear · Portuguese

cabecear · rank #69,398 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #69,398
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-MID 2,140
  • PHOTO-FINISH borin

Nearest frequency peer: borin (-7 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Ranks da cauda longa perto de “cabecear”

Faixa escassa: as barras invertem o rank para o raro ler-se mais curto

corpus weight

What this shows Vista da cauda longa: onde “cabecear” se situa face a ranks portugueses igualmente raros.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for cabecear
PropertyValue
Headwordcabecear
LanguagePortuguese
Part of speechVerb
Letters8
Frequency rank#69,398
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Cauda longa: rank de “cabecear” em português

A frequência vai do punhado de palavras do dia a dia (esquerda) à cauda longa quase nunca usada (direita).cabecearcai nesta cauda de raridade:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

A escala é logarítmica (cada marca ≈ 10× mais rara). Vizinhos raros da mesma faixa: “borin” (#69,391), “boboca” (#69,390), “capelo” (#69,410). Entre 2,140 lemas com “C”, “cabecear” fica em #69,398. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

cabecear is uncommon Portuguese at frequency #69,398 among 2,140 “C” headwords, classed as averb. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for cabecear, which points to an orthography that plays by predictable Portuguese rules. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct Portuguese form is cabecear, spelled C-A-B-E-C-E-A-R.

Definition

  1. 1
    bater com a cabeça em algum objeto, com o objetivo de direcionar ou redirecionar a sua trajetória
  2. 2
    apresentar ato reflexo de trazer a cabeça e/ou cabeça e tronco à posição ereta depois de os ter deixado inclinar repentinamente por perda momentânea do estado de vigília

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how cabecear appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Com pouco mais de um minuto, o lateral Júlio César roubou a bola no meio campo, carregou em velocidade até a linha de fundo e cruzou para Henrique, que cabeceou firme para marcar o segundo gol do Botafogo, seu primeiro gol pelo clube.

Synonyms

canearcochilarescadelecerescardecermarrucarpescarpingarsonecartoscanejartosquenejar

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 Portuguese corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "cabecear"?
"cabecear" is spelled C-A-B-E-C-E-A-R.
What does "cabecear" mean?
As a verb, "cabecear" means: bater com a cabeça em algum objeto, com o objetivo de direcionar ou redirecionar a sua trajetória
What language does "cabecear" come from?
"cabecear" is a Portuguese word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar Portuguese words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "cabecear", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked Portuguese headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list