cabeçãovscoleçãoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#34,173
“cabeção” frequency rank
#2,085
“coleção” frequency rank
36258
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cabeção coleção
Definition testarudo, teimoso conjunto

Where the eye mixes cabeção and coleção

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. cabeção and coleção follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
cabeção
7 ch
coleção

Visual trap between cabeção and coleção

A purely visual mix-up. cabeção (/ka.be.'saŋ/, /ka.be.'θaŋ/) and coleção (/ko.le.ˈsɐ͂w/) 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 36258, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cabeção is recorded at frequency rank #34,173, classified as anoun, pronounced /ka.be.'saŋ/, /ka.be.'θaŋ/. coleção is at rank #2,085, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ko.le.ˈsɐ͂w/.

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 36258, this pair ranks #30,610 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cabeção vs coleção

Shared letters: ceoãç. Private to "cabeção": ab. Private to "coleção": l.

"cabeção" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV  ·  "coleção" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cabeção" for "coleção" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ka.be.'saŋ/, /ka.be.'θaŋ/ versus /ko.le.ˈsɐ͂w/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cabeção" or "coleção" show up more?
"coleção" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,085 in our Portuguese list, against #34,173 for "cabeção". 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 "cabeção" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "coleção" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #30,610 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cabeção" and "coleção" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cabeção vs caução". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #30,610 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