Which to use
“cabeça” and “caneca” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #361
- “cabeça” frequency rank
- #14,091
- “caneca” frequency rank
- 14452
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cabeça | caneca |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | parte do corpo humano, onde se localizam o cérebro, protegido pelo crânio, e a face, ligada ao tronco pelo pescoço | copo com asa, porém, ao contrário da xícara, geralmente maior e não necessita de pires |
Where the eye mixes cabeça and caneca
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses cabeça with caneca
A purely visual mix-up. cabeça (/kɐ.ˈbe.sɐ/) and caneca (/ˈkɐ.nɛ.kɐ/) 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 14452, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cabeça is recorded at frequency rank #361, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɐ.ˈbe.sɐ/. caneca is at rank #14,091, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɐ.nɛ.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 14452, this pair ranks #57,620 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of cabeça vs caneca
Shared letters: ace. Private to "cabeça": bç. Private to "caneca": n.
"cabeça" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "caneca" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- caneca ← acneca · caenca · cancea · caneac · canecca · canneca · ccaneca · cnaeca
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cabeça" for "caneca" ever safe?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cabeça" or "caneca" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "cabeça" and "caneca" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cabeça" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "caneca" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #57,620 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cabeça" and "caneca" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caneca vs conca". 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 #57,620 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.