cachovscalhaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#35,472
“cacho” frequency rank
#30,453
“calha” frequency rank
65925
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cacho calha
Definition conjunto de flores ou frutos que têm um eixo comum amarelinha

Where the eye mixes cacho and calha

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

5 ch
cacho
5 ch
calha

Visual trap between cacho and calha

A purely visual mix-up. cacho (/ˈka.ʃu/) and calha (/ˈka.ʎɐ/) 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 65925, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cacho is recorded at frequency rank #35,472, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈka.ʃu/. calha is at rank #30,453, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈka.ʎɐ/.

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 65925, this pair ranks #5,179 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cacho vs calha

Shared letters: ach. Private to "cacho": o. Private to "calha": l.

"cacho" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "calha" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cacho ← caccho · cachho · cacoh · cahco · ccacho · ccaho
  • calha ← aclha · cahla · calah · calhha · callha · ccalha · claha

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cacho" for "calha" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈka.ʃu/ versus /ˈka.ʎɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cacho" or "calha"?
"calha" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,453 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.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cacho" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "calha" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,179 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cacho" and "calha" 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 #5,179 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