cabalavscaracaWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: cabala is a noun, caraca is an intj, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cabala” is a noun and “caraca” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#37,212
“cabala” frequency rank
#38,169
“caraca” frequency rank
75381
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cabala caraca
Definition interpretação mística da Bíblia entre os judeus expressa admiração, espanto; insatisfação, repreensão

Where the eye mixes cabala and caraca

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

6 ch
cabala
6 ch
caraca

Why the eye confuses cabala with caraca

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cabala is /kɐ.ˈba.lɐ/ while caraca is /ka.ˈɾa.kɐ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs intj), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75381, 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/. caraca is at rank #38,169, tagged as anintj, pronounced /ka.ˈɾa.kɐ/.

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 75381, this pair ranks #2,313 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cabala vs caraca

Shared letters: ac. Private to "cabala": bl. Private to "caraca": r.

"cabala" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "caraca" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cabalaacbala · caabla · cabaal · caballa · cabbala · cablaa · cbaala · ccabala
  • caracaacraca · caarca · caraac · caracca · carcaa · carraca · ccaraca · craaca

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cabala" for "caraca" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cabala" is a noun and "caraca" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cabala" or "caraca" show up more?
"cabala" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,212 in our Portuguese list, against #38,169 for "caraca". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "cabala" and "caraca" 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 "caraca" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,313 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cabala" and "caraca" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caraca vs carapaça". 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 #2,313 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