cadeiavscapetaWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#1,838
“cadeia” frequency rank
#42,823
“capeta” frequency rank
44661
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cadeia capeta
Definition local que serve de detenção temporária para criminosos de baixa periculosidade sapeca, peralta, endiabrado

Where the eye mixes cadeia and capeta

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cadeia (CVCVVV) and capeta (CVCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
cadeia
6 ch
capeta

Visual trap between cadeia and capeta

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cadeia is /kɐ.ˈdɐj.ɐ/ while capeta is \ka.'pe.ta\. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44661, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cadeia is recorded at frequency rank #1,838, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɐ.ˈdɐj.ɐ/. capeta is at rank #42,823, tagged as anadj, pronounced \ka.'pe.ta\.

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 44661, this pair ranks #20,783 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cadeia vs capeta

Shared letters: ace. Private to "cadeia": di. Private to "capeta": pt.

"cadeia" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVV  ·  "capeta" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cadeia ← acdeia · caddeia · cadeai · cadiea · caedia · ccadeia · cdaeia
  • capeta ← acpeta · caepta · capeat · capetta · cappeta · captea · ccapeta · cpaeta

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cadeia" and "capeta" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cadeia" is a noun and "capeta" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cadeia" or "capeta" show up more?
"cadeia" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,838 in our Portuguese list, against #42,823 for "capeta". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cadeia" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "capeta" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #20,783 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cadeia" and "capeta" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "capeta vs copta". 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 #20,783 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