cabovscoConfusable pair

Quick tell: cabo is a noun, co is a pronoun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cabo” is a noun and “co” is a pronoun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,092
“cabo” frequency rank
#2,005
“co” frequency rank
3097
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cabo co
Definition patente militar abaixo do sargento e acima do soldado que

Letter map: cabo vs co

Shared letters muted; letters that set cabo and co apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
cabo
2 ch
co

Role in the sentence - cabo and co

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: cabo is anoun and coapronoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3097, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cabo is recorded at frequency rank #1,092, classified as anoun. co is at rank #2,005, tagged as apron.

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 3097, this pair ranks #72,115 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cabo vs co

Shared letters: co. Private to "cabo": ab. Private to "co": -.

"cabo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "co" · 2 letters · shape CV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caboacbo · cabbo · caob · cbao · ccabo

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cabo" and "co" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cabo" is a noun and "co" a pronoun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "cabo" vs "co" - which ranks higher?
"cabo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,092 in our Portuguese list, against #2,005 for "co". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "cabo" and "co".

  • Full dictionary entry for "cabo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "co" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #72,115 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cabo" and "co" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ciao vs co". 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 #72,115 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