cacauvscachoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#9,010
“cacau” frequency rank
#35,472
“cacho” frequency rank
44482
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cacau cacho
Definition fruto do cacaueiro (ou cacauzeiro), cuja semente é usada na produção de chocolate e manteiga de cacau conjunto de flores ou frutos que têm um eixo comum

Where the eye mixes cacau and cacho

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
cacau
5 ch
cacho

Visual trap between cacau and cacho

A purely visual mix-up. cacau (/kɐ.ˈkaw/) and cacho (/ˈka.ʃu/) 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 44482, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cacau is recorded at frequency rank #9,010, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɐ.ˈkaw/. cacho is at rank #35,472, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈka.ʃu/.

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 44482, this pair ranks #20,998 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cacau vs cacho

Shared letters: ac. Private to "cacau": u. Private to "cacho": ho.

"cacau" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "cacho" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cacauaccau · caacu · caccau · cacua · ccaau · ccacau
  • cachocaccho · cachho · cacoh · cahco · ccacho · ccaho

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cacau" and "cacho" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/kɐ.ˈkaw/ versus /ˈka.ʃu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cacau" or "cacho" show up more?
"cacau" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,010 in our Portuguese list, against #35,472 for "cacho". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cacau" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cacho" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #20,998 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cacau" and "cacho" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cacho 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 #20,998 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