cão
/ˈkɐ̃ũ̯/
The verdict
“cão” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #3,065) as an adjective. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #3,065
- frequency rank, Portuguese
- 2,140
- “C” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - cruel, brutal, dominador
Corpus desk
Index PT-cao · cão · Portuguese
cão · rank #3,065 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #3,065
- LEN-MID 3 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-MID 2,140
- PHOTO-FINISH crítico
Nearest frequency peer: crítico (-1 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.
Vizinhos de frequência do confusável “cão”
Pares de peso semelhante no corpus, aparte dos confusáveis abaixo
- compromisso
compromisso
96,941 corpus weight
- confiar
confiar
96,939 corpus weight
- crítico
crítico
96,937 corpus weight
- cão
cão
96,936 corpus weight
- definitivam…
definitivamente
96,934 corpus weight
- dever
dever
96,933 corpus weight
What this shows As barras situam “cão” face aos lemas portugueses mais próximos por rank, não um reprint da secretária de confusáveis.
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 | cão |
| Language | Portuguese |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | /ˈkɐ̃ũ̯/ |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #3,065 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Rank de corpus junto a confusáveis de “cão”
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for cão is neighbouring look-alikes ("co", "ce", …), not just typos; it is anadjective pronounced /ˈkɐ̃ũ̯/. Frequency #3,065 among 2,140 “C” headwords. Gloss: "cruel, brutal, dominador".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for cão, suggesting the orthography follows predictable Portuguese patterns. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "co", "ce", "cu", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct Portuguese form is cão, spelled C-Ã-O.
Definition
- 1cruel, brutal, dominador
Recorded use
Wiktionary exampleThese source excerpts show how cão appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
Lá só há um mundo cão, dessa gente cã, naquela localidade cã, matou-se como se se comesse um quindim, como se fosse a coisa mais banal, e filma-se e se ri, algo de gerar repugnância em qualquer um minimamente civilizado.
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 "cão"?
What does "cão" mean?
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Is PlainSpell free to use?
Similar Portuguese words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "cão", not the corpus desk frequency band.