cal
/ˈkaɫ/
The verdict
“cal” is a moderately-common Portuguese word, ranked #11,223 in Portuguese word frequency and used as a noun.
- #11,223
- frequency rank, Portuguese
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - nome vulgar do óxido de cálcio (também chamado cal viva, cal virgem ou cal cáustica)
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cal |
| Language | Portuguese |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈkaɫ/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #11,223 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cal” sits in Portuguese frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The Portuguese entry for cal is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ˈkaɫ/. Corpus data places it at rank #11,223 in overall Portuguese word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No misspelling variants are generated for cal in our index, since its letter sequence doesn't invite the usual edit-distance slips. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "co", "ce", "cu", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct Portuguese form is cal, spelled C-A-L.
Definition
- 1nome vulgar do óxido de cálcio (também chamado cal viva, cal virgem ou cal cáustica)
- 2nome vulgar do hidróxido de cálcio (cal morta, cal hidratada, cal extinta, cal apagada, branco de cal)
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
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Using “cal”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Portuguese spelling is C-A-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ˈkaɫ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “co” - see the side-by-side comparison. cal vs co
- Browse more Portuguese words and confusable pairs in the same reference. Portuguese words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.