cairvscriWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: cair is a verb, cri is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cair” is a verb and “cri” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,522
“cair” frequency rank
#28,523
“cri” frequency rank
30045
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cair cri
Definition dar queda povo indígena da América do Norte, que habitava desde as montanhas Rochosas até o oceano Atlântico, tanto nos Estados Unidos da América quanto no Canadá

Letter map: cair vs cri

Shared letters muted; letters that set cair and cri apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
cair
3 ch
cri

Role in the sentence - cair and cri

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: cair is averb and crianoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30045, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cair is recorded at frequency rank #1,522, classified as averb. cri is at rank #28,523, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɾi/.

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 30045, this pair ranks #38,418 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cair vs cri

Shared letters: cir. Private to "cair": a. Private to "cri": -.

"cair" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "cri" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cairacir · cairr · cari · ccair · ciar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cair" and "cri" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cair" is a verb and "cri" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "cair" vs "cri" - which ranks higher?
"cair" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,522 in our Portuguese list, against #28,523 for "cri". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pair "cair" vs "cri" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cair" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cri" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #38,418 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cair" and "cri" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coin vs cri". 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 #38,418 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