cabal vs cavar, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“cabal” is an adjective and “cavar” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#36,355
“cabal” frequency rank: #23,601
“cavar” frequency rank: 59956
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	cabal	cavar
Definition	satisfatório; completo; rigoroso; pleno	abrir ou revolver a terra com enxada ou sacho; escavar; sachar

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set cabal and cavar apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

cabal

5 ch

cavar

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: cabal is anadjective and cavaraverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59956, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cabal is recorded at frequency rank #36,355, classified as anadj. cavar is at rank #23,601, tagged as averb, pronounced /kɐ.ˈvaɾ/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 59956, this pair ranks #7,919 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cabal vs cavar

Shared letters: ac. Private to "cabal": bl. Private to "cavar": rv.

"cabal" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "cavar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

cabal ← acbal · caabl · caball · cabbal · cabla · cbaal · ccabal
cavar ← acvar · caavr · cavarr · cavra · cavvar · ccavar · cvaar

Frequency comparison

cabal#36,355

cavar#23,601

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cabal" and "cavar" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cabal" is an adjective and "cavar" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "cabal" or "cavar"?

"cavar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,601 in our Portuguese list, against #36,355 for "cabal". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering cabal vs cavar

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “cabal”; for a verb, it's “cavar”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “cabal” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable