cadelavscaretaConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#10,142
“cadela” frequency rank
#23,598
“careta” frequency rank
33740
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cadela careta
Definition animal fêmea da espécie Canis lupus familiaris, cujo macho é o cão não drogado ou alcoolizado; sóbrio

Where the eye mixes cadela and careta

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cadela and careta follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
cadela
6 ch
careta

Visual trap between cadela and careta

A purely visual mix-up. cadela (/kɐ.ˈdɛ.lɐ/) and careta (/kɐ.ˈɾe.tɐ/) 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 33740, 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/. careta is at rank #23,598, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɐ.ˈɾe.tɐ/.

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 33740, this pair ranks #33,687 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cadela vs careta

Shared letters: ace. Private to "cadela": dl. Private to "careta": rt.

"cadela" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "careta" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cadela ← acdela · caddela · cadeal · cadella · cadlea · caedla · ccadela · cdaela
  • careta ← careat · caretta · cartea · ccareta · craeta

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cadela" and "careta" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/kɐ.ˈdɛ.lɐ/ versus /kɐ.ˈɾe.tɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cadela" or "careta" show up more?
"cadela" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,142 in our Portuguese list, against #23,598 for "careta". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "cadela" and "careta" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cadela" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "careta" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #33,687 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cadela" and "careta" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "careta vs carrera". 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 #33,687 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