cabravscifraWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#11,222
“cabra” frequency rank
#16,963
“cifra” frequency rank
28185
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cabra cifra
Definition quadrúpede mamífero e ruminante com numerosas raças selvagens o mesmo que zero

Where the eye mixes cabra and cifra

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cabra and cifra follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
cabra
5 ch
cifra

Visual trap between cabra and cifra

A purely visual mix-up. cabra (/ˈka.bɾɐ/) and cifra (/ˈsi.fɾɐ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28185, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cabra is recorded at frequency rank #11,222, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈka.bɾɐ/. cifra is at rank #16,963, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsi.fɾɐ/.

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 28185, this pair ranks #40,659 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cabra vs cifra

Shared letters: acr. Private to "cabra": b. Private to "cifra": fi.

"cabra" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "cifra" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cabra ← acbra · cabar · cabbra · cabrra · carba · cbara · ccabra
  • cifra ← ccifra · cfira · cifar · ciffra · cifrra · cirfa · icfra

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cabra" for "cifra" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈka.bɾɐ/ versus /ˈsi.fɾɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cabra" or "cifra" show up more?
"cabra" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,222 in our Portuguese list, against #16,963 for "cifra". 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 "cabra" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cifra" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #40,659 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cabra" and "cifra" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cabina vs cabra". 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 #40,659 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