cabalavscabeloConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#37,212
“cabala” frequency rank
#930
“cabelo” frequency rank
38142
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cabala cabelo
Definition interpretação mística da Bíblia entre os judeus pelos que crescem na cabeça do ser humano

Where the eye mixes cabala and cabelo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cabala and cabelo follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
cabala
6 ch
cabelo

Look-alike desk: cabala vs cabelo

A purely visual mix-up. cabala (/kɐ.ˈba.lɐ/) and cabelo (/kɐ.ˈbe.lu/) 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 38142, 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/. cabelo is at rank #930, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɐ.ˈbe.lu/.

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 38142, this pair ranks #28,368 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cabala vs cabelo

Shared letters: abcl. Private to "cabala": -. Private to "cabelo": eo.

"cabala" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "cabelo" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cabala ← acbala · caabla · cabaal · caballa · cabbala · cablaa · cbaala · ccabala
  • cabelo ← acbelo · cabbelo · cabello · cabeol · cableo · caeblo · cbaelo · ccabelo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cabala" and "cabelo" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/kɐ.ˈba.lɐ/ versus /kɐ.ˈbe.lu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cabala" vs "cabelo" - which ranks higher?
"cabelo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #930 in our Portuguese list, against #37,212 for "cabala". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cabala" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cabelo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #28,368 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cabala" and "cabelo" 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 #28,368 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