capitão
/kɐ.pi.ˈtɐ̃w̃/
The verdict
“capitão” has 9 generated spelling variants in the Portuguese index at frequency #1,768. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #1,768
- frequency rank, Portuguese
- 3,948
- “C” headwords
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 9
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - chefe militar
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 | capitão |
| Language | Portuguese |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /kɐ.pi.ˈtɐ̃w̃/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #1,768 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 9 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “capitão” sits in Portuguese frequency
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 9 spelling variants around capitão (IPA /kɐ.pi.ˈtɐ̃w̃/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #1,768 among 3,948 “C” headwords. Wiktionary lists 5 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for capitão, with forms such as "acpitão", "caiptão", and "capitoã". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 9 confusable-pair relationships, "cartão", "captar", "capítulo", 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 easiest to reason about phoneme by phoneme, absent a documented history. The correct Portuguese form is capitão, spelled C-A-P-I-T-Ã-O.
Definition
- 1chefe militar
- 2oficial do exército ou da força aérea com o posto entre tenente e major
- 3comandante de um navio mercante
- 4comandante de uma espaçonave
- 5chefe de uma equipe desportiva
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: acpitão,caiptão,capitoã,capittão,capiãto,cappitão,captião,ccapitão,cpaitão
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of capitão - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "capitão"?
What does "capitão" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "capitão"?
How do you pronounce "capitão"?
What language does "capitão" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “capitão”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Portuguese spelling is C-A-P-I-T-Ã-O - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /kɐ.pi.ˈtɐ̃w̃/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “cartão” - see the side-by-side comparison. capitão vs cartão
- Browse more Portuguese words and confusable pairs in the same reference. Portuguese words
Same frequency band
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.