cagãovscalãoConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#43,313
“cagão” frequency rank
#39,032
“calão” frequency rank
82345
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cagão calão
Definition cagão, que defeca com muita frequência que não trabalha tanto quanto deveria

Where the eye mixes cagão and calão

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

5 ch
cagão
5 ch
calão

Look-alike desk: cagão vs calão

A purely visual mix-up. cagão (/kɐ.'gaŋ/ e /kɐ.'goŋ/) and calão (/kɐ.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 a single letter - g in “cagão” becomes l in “calão”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82345, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cagão is recorded at frequency rank #43,313, classified as anadj, pronounced /kɐ.'gaŋ/ e /kɐ.'goŋ/. calão is at rank #39,032, tagged as anadj, pronounced /kɐ.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 82345, this pair ranks #1,044 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cagão vs calão

Shared letters: acoã. Private to "cagão": g. Private to "calão": l.

"cagão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "calão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cagão" and "calão" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/kɐ.'gaŋ/ e /kɐ.'goŋ/ versus /kɐ.ˈlɐ̃w̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cagão" vs "calão" - which ranks higher?
"calão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #39,032 in our Portuguese list, against #43,313 for "cagão". 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 "cagão" and "calão" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cagão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "calão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,044 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cagão" and "calão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cagão vs ciao". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,044 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