cabalavscabaréWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“cabala” and “cabaré” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#37,212
“cabala” frequency rank
#26,656
“cabaré” frequency rank
63868
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cabala cabaré
Definition interpretação mística da Bíblia entre os judeus casa de diversão para beber e dançar e assistir a espetáculos de variedades (dança, mágica etc.)

Where the eye mixes cabala and cabaré

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
cabala
6 ch
cabaré

Why the eye confuses cabala with cabaré

A purely visual mix-up. cabala (/kɐ.ˈba.lɐ/) and cabaré (/ka.ba.ˈɾɛ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63868, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cabala is recorded at frequency rank #37,212, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɐ.ˈba.lɐ/. cabaré is at rank #26,656, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ka.ba.ˈɾɛ/.

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 63868, this pair ranks #6,007 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cabala vs cabaré

Shared letters: abc. Private to "cabala": l. Private to "cabaré": .

"cabala" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "cabaré" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cabalaacbala · caabla · cabaal · caballa · cabbala · cablaa · cbaala · ccabala

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cabala" for "cabaré" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/kɐ.ˈba.lɐ/ versus /ka.ba.ˈɾɛ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cabala" or "cabaré"?
"cabaré" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,656 in our Portuguese list, against #37,212 for "cabala". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "cabala" and "cabaré" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cabala" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cabaré" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #6,007 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cabala" and "cabaré" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cabala vs cabina". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #6,007 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list