cagãovscavaloConfusable pair

Quick tell: cagão is a adjective, cavalo is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#43,313
“cagão” frequency rank
#2,994
“cavalo” frequency rank
46307
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cagão cavalo
Definition cagão, que defeca com muita frequência animal quadrúpede da espécie Equus caballus, utilizado pelo homem para esporte, transporte e tração de arados

Where the eye mixes cagão and cavalo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cagão runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against cavalo's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
cagão
6 ch
cavalo

Look-alike desk: cagão vs cavalo

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cagão is /kɐ.'gaŋ/ e /kɐ.'goŋ/ while cavalo is /kɐ.ˈva.lu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46307, 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/. cavalo is at rank #2,994, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɐ.ˈva.lu/.

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 46307, this pair ranks #19,028 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cagão vs cavalo

Shared letters: aco. Private to "cagão": . Private to "cavalo": lv.

"cagão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "cavalo" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cavaloacvalo · caavlo · cavallo · cavaol · cavlao · cavvalo · ccavalo · cvaalo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cagão" and "cavalo" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cagão" is an adjective and "cavalo" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "cagão" or "cavalo"?
"cavalo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,994 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.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cagão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cavalo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #19,028 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cagão" and "cavalo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cagão vs ciao". 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 #19,028 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