cadelavscapelãoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#10,142
“cadela” frequency rank
#25,222
“capelão” frequency rank
35364
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cadela capelão
Definition animal fêmea da espécie Canis lupus familiaris, cujo macho é o cão padre encarregado de rezar missas em capelas e prestar assistência espiritual a regimentos militares, escolas, hospitais, etc

Where the eye mixes cadela and capelão

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

6 ch
cadela
7 ch
capelão

Visual trap between cadela and capelão

A purely visual mix-up. cadela (/kɐ.ˈdɛ.lɐ/) and capelão (/kɐ.pɨ.ˈlɐ̃w̃/) 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 35364, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cadela is recorded at frequency rank #10,142, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɐ.ˈdɛ.lɐ/. capelão is at rank #25,222, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɐ.pɨ.ˈlɐ̃w̃/.

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 35364, this pair ranks #31,692 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cadela vs capelão

Shared letters: acel. Private to "cadela": d. Private to "capelão": opã.

"cadela" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "capelão" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cadela ← acdela · caddela · cadeal · cadella · cadlea · caedla · ccadela · cdaela

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cadela" and "capelão" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/kɐ.ˈdɛ.lɐ/ versus /kɐ.pɨ.ˈlɐ̃w̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cadela" vs "capelão" - which ranks higher?
"cadela" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,142 in our Portuguese list, against #25,222 for "capelão". 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 "cadela" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "capelão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #31,692 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cadela" and "capelão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "capelão vs capeta". 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 #31,692 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