caçadovscercadoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#38,617
“caçado” frequency rank
#8,164
“cercado” frequency rank
46781
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caçado cercado
Definition que foi abatido em uma caça rodeado ou contornado por uma barreira

Where the eye mixes caçado and cercado

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. caçado runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against cercado's 7 (CVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
caçado
7 ch
cercado

Look-alike desk: caçado vs cercado

A purely visual mix-up. caçado (/ka.ˈsa.du/) and cercado (/sɨɾ.ˈka.du/) 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 46781, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

caçado is recorded at frequency rank #38,617, classified as anadj, pronounced /ka.ˈsa.du/. cercado is at rank #8,164, tagged as anadj, pronounced /sɨɾ.ˈka.du/.

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 46781, this pair ranks #18,531 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of caçado vs cercado

Shared letters: acdo. Private to "caçado": ç. Private to "cercado": er.

"caçado" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "cercado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cercado ← ccercado · cecrado · ceracdo · cercaddo · cercaod · cerccado · cercdao · cerrcado

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "caçado" and "cercado" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ka.ˈsa.du/ versus /sɨɾ.ˈka.du/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "caçado" vs "cercado" - which ranks higher?
"cercado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,164 in our Portuguese list, against #38,617 for "caçado". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "caçado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cercado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #18,531 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caçado" and "cercado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caçado vs caução". 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 #18,531 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