cagãovscãoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#43,313
“cagão” frequency rank
#3,065
“cão” frequency rank
46378
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cagão cão
Definition cagão, que defeca com muita frequência cruel, brutal, dominador

Where the eye mixes cagão and cão

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cagão runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against cão's 3 (CVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
cagão
3 ch
cão

Look-alike desk: cagão vs cão

A purely visual mix-up. cagão (/kɐ.'gaŋ/ e /kɐ.'goŋ/) and cão (/ˈkɐ̃ũ̯/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46378, 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/. cão is at rank #3,065, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈkɐ̃ũ̯/.

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 46378, this pair ranks #18,929 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cagão vs cão

Shared letters: coã. Private to "cagão": ag. Private to "cão": -.

"cagão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "cão" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cagão" and "cão" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/kɐ.'gaŋ/ e /kɐ.'goŋ/ versus /ˈkɐ̃ũ̯/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cagão" or "cão"?
"cão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,065 in our Portuguese list, against #43,313 for "cagão". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "cagão" and "cão" 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 "cão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #18,929 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cagão" and "cão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cagão vs ciao". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #18,929 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