cabinavscantinaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#45,224
“cabina” frequency rank
#18,271
“cantina” frequency rank
63495
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cabina cantina
Definition compartimento de navio ou trem restaurante de instituições de grande porte, para os funcionários e/ou alunos

Where the eye mixes cabina and cantina

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. cabina runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against cantina's 7 (CVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
cabina
7 ch
cantina

Look-alike desk: cabina vs cantina

A purely visual mix-up. cabina (/ka.ˈbi.nɐ/) and cantina (/kɐ̃.ˈti.nɐ/) 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 63495, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cabina is recorded at frequency rank #45,224, classified as anoun, pronounced /ka.ˈbi.nɐ/. cantina is at rank #18,271, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɐ̃.ˈti.nɐ/.

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 63495, this pair ranks #6,168 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cabina vs cantina

Shared letters: acin. Private to "cabina": b. Private to "cantina": t.

"cabina" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "cantina" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cabinaacbina · cabbina · cabian · cabinna · cabnia · caibna · cbaina · ccabina
  • cantinaacntina · canitna · canntina · cantian · cantinna · cantnia · canttina · catnina

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cabina" for "cantina" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ka.ˈbi.nɐ/ versus /kɐ̃.ˈti.nɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cabina" or "cantina"?
"cantina" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,271 in our Portuguese list, against #45,224 for "cabina". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "cabina" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cantina" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #6,168 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cabina" and "cantina" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cabina vs carabina". 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 #6,168 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