CainvscárieWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#22,548
“Cain” frequency rank
#40,971
“cárie” frequency rank
63519
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature Cain cárie
Definition Caim ulceração nos dentes e ossos, que os destrói progressivamente

Where the eye mixes Cain and cárie

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. Cain runs 4 letters (CVVC) against cárie's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
Cain
5 ch
cárie

Visual trap between Cain and cárie

A purely visual mix-up. Cain (/keɪn/.) and cárie (/ˈka.ɾji/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63519, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

Cain is recorded at frequency rank #22,548, classified as anoun, pronounced /keɪn/.. cárie is at rank #40,971, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈka.ɾji/.

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 63519, this pair ranks #6,154 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of Cain vs cárie

Shared letters: ci. Private to "Cain": an. Private to "cárie": erá.

"Cain" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "cárie" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Cain ← acin · cainn · cani · ccain · cian

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "Cain" for "cárie" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/keɪn/. versus /ˈka.ɾji/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "Cain" vs "cárie" - which ranks higher?
"Cain" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,548 in our Portuguese list, against #40,971 for "cárie". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "Cain" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cárie" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #6,154 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "Cain" and "cárie" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cárie vs carpet". 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 #6,154 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