cabervscairWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#17,454
“caber” frequency rank
#1,522
“cair” frequency rank
18976
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caber cair
Definition poder ser contido em dar queda

Letter map: caber vs cair

Shared letters muted; letters that set caber and cair apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
caber
4 ch
cair

Corpus notes: caber and cair

caber and cair are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 18976, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

caber is recorded at frequency rank #17,454, classified as averb, pronounced /kɐ.ˈbeɾ/. cair is at rank #1,522, tagged as averb.

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 18976, this pair ranks #51,895 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of caber vs cair

Shared letters: acr. Private to "caber": be. Private to "cair": i.

"caber" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "cair" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caberacber · cabber · caberr · cabre · caebr · cbaer · ccaber
  • cairacir · cairr · cari · ccair · ciar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "caber" and "cair" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "caber" vs "cair" - which ranks higher?
"cair" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,522 in our Portuguese list, against #17,454 for "caber". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "caber" and "cair".

  • Full dictionary entry for "caber" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cair" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #51,895 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caber" and "cair" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caber vs camel". 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 #51,895 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