chau
/ʃaʊ/
The verdict
“chau” is a moderately-common Portuguese word, ranked #49,350 in Portuguese word frequency and used as an interjection.
- #49,350
- frequency rank, Portuguese
- 4
- letters
- 5
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - até logo; adeus!
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 | chau |
| Language | Portuguese |
| Part of speech | Interjection |
| IPA | /ʃaʊ/ |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #49,350 |
| Misspellings tracked | 5 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “chau” sits in Portuguese frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The Portuguese entry for chau is 4 letters long, classified as an interjection, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /ʃaʊ/. Corpus data places it at rank #49,350 in overall Portuguese word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "até logo; adeus!".
Our generated misspelling index lists 5 likely wrong-spelling variants for chau, with forms such as "cahu", "cchau", and "chhau". 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 20 confusable-pair relationships, "cu", "clã", "chi", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.
This entry carries no recorded etymology, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct Portuguese form is chau, spelled C-H-A-U.
Definition
- 1até logo; adeus!
Synonyms
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: cahu,cchau,chhau,chua,hcau
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of chau - 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
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Using “chau”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Portuguese spelling is C-H-A-U - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /ʃaʊ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “cu” - see the side-by-side comparison. chau vs cu
- 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.