Which to use
“cagão” is an adjective and “cavar” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #43,313
- “cagão” frequency rank
- #23,601
- “cavar” frequency rank
- 66914
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cagão | cavar |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | cagão, que defeca com muita frequência | abrir ou revolver a terra com enxada ou sacho; escavar; sachar |
Where the eye mixes cagão and cavar
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. cagão (CVCVV) and cavar (CVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between cagão and cavar
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cagão is /kɐ.'gaŋ/ e /kɐ.'goŋ/ while cavar is /kɐ.ˈvaɾ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66914, 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/. cavar is at rank #23,601, tagged as averb, pronounced /kɐ.ˈvaɾ/.
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 66914, this pair ranks #4,810 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cagão vs cavar
Shared letters: ac. Private to "cagão": goã. Private to "cavar": rv.
"cagão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "cavar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- cavar ← acvar · caavr · cavarr · cavra · cavvar · ccavar · cvaar
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cagão" for "cavar" ever safe?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cagão" or "cavar" show up more?
Useful next steps
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 "cavar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #4,810 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cagão" and "cavar" 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 #4,810 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.