Which to use
“cabelo” and “capelão” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #930
- “cabelo” frequency rank
- #25,222
- “capelão” frequency rank
- 26152
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cabelo | capelão |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | pelos que crescem na cabeça do ser humano | padre encarregado de rezar missas em capelas e prestar assistência espiritual a regimentos militares, escolas, hospitais, etc |
Where the eye mixes cabelo and capelão
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. cabelo runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against capelão's 7 (CVCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses cabelo with capelão
A purely visual mix-up. cabelo (/kɐ.ˈbe.lu/) and capelão (/kɐ.pɨ.ˈlɐ̃w̃/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26152, 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/. capelão is at rank #25,222, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɐ.pɨ.ˈlɐ̃w̃/.
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 26152, this pair ranks #43,039 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cabelo vs capelão
Shared letters: acelo. Private to "cabelo": b. Private to "capelão": pã.
"cabelo" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "capelão" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- cabelo ← acbelo · cabbelo · cabello · cabeol · cableo · caeblo · cbaelo · ccabelo
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "cabelo" and "capelão" be used interchangeably?
Frequency check: "cabelo" vs "capelão" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
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 "capelão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #43,039 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cabelo" and "capelão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "capelão vs capeta". 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 #43,039 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.