cacovscincoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: caco is a noun, cinco is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“caco” is a noun and “cinco” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#21,952
“caco” frequency rank
#373
“cinco” frequency rank
22325
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caco cinco
Definition fragmento ou pedaço quebrado de louça, barro, vidro, mármore etc número equivalente a quatro mais um; cardinalidade de um conjunto que contenha cinco elementos distintos; representado pelo símbolo 5 (algarismos arábicos) ou V (algarismos romanos)

Letter map: caco vs cinco

Shared letters muted; letters that set caco and cinco apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. caco runs 4 letters (CVCV) against cinco's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
caco
5 ch
cinco

Role in the sentence - caco and cinco

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: caco is anoun and cincoanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22325, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

caco is recorded at frequency rank #21,952, classified as anoun. cinco is at rank #373, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈsĩ.ku/.

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 22325, this pair ranks #47,751 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of caco vs cinco

Shared letters: co. Private to "caco": a. Private to "cinco": in.

"caco" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cinco" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caco ← acco · cacco · caoc · ccaco · ccao
  • cinco ← ccinco · cicno · cincco · cinnco · cinoc · cnico · icnco

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "caco" and "cinco" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "caco" is a noun and "cinco" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "caco" or "cinco"?
"cinco" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #373 in our Portuguese list, against #21,952 for "caco". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "caco" and "cinco".

  • Full dictionary entry for "caco" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cinco" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #47,751 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caco" and "cinco" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caco vs ciao". 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 #47,751 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