Which to use
“cabo” is a noun and “cair” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #1,092
- “cabo” frequency rank
- #1,522
- “cair” frequency rank
- 2614
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cabo | cair |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | patente militar abaixo do sargento e acima do soldado | dar queda |
Letter map: cabo vs cair
Shared letters muted; letters that set cabo and cair apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.
Part-of-speech tell for cabo / cair
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: cabo is anoun and cairaverb. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2614, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cabo is recorded at frequency rank #1,092, classified as anoun. 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 2614, this pair ranks #72,718 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of cabo vs cair
Shared letters: ac. Private to "cabo": bo. Private to "cair": ir.
"cabo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "cair" · 4 letters · shape CVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cabo" and "cair" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cabo" or "cair" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pair "cabo" vs "cair" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.
- Full dictionary entry for "cabo" 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 #72,718 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cabo" and "cair" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cair vs coagir". 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 #72,718 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.