Which to use
“cabelo” and “cabrão” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #930
- “cabelo” frequency rank
- #38,163
- “cabrão” frequency rank
- 39093
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cabelo | cabrão |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | pelos que crescem na cabeça do ser humano | o macho da cabra; bode |
Where the eye mixes cabelo and cabrão
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Look-alike desk: cabelo vs cabrão
A purely visual mix-up. cabelo (/kɐ.ˈbe.lu/) and cabrão (/kɐ.ˈbɾɐ̃w̃/) 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 39093, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cabelo is recorded at frequency rank #930, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɐ.ˈbe.lu/. cabrão is at rank #38,163, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɐ.ˈbɾɐ̃w̃/.
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 39093, this pair ranks #27,247 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cabelo vs cabrão
Shared letters: abco. Private to "cabelo": el. Private to "cabrão": rã.
"cabelo" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "cabrão" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- cabelo ← acbelo · cabbelo · cabello · cabeol · cableo · caeblo · cbaelo · ccabelo
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cabelo" for "cabrão" ever safe?
Frequency check: "cabelo" vs "cabrão" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "cabelo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cabrão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #27,247 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cabelo" and "cabrão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cabrão vs caução". 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 #27,247 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.