Which to use
“cais” and “cal” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,845
- “cais” frequency rank
- #11,223
- “cal” frequency rank
- 22068
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cais | cal |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | lugar à beira-mar, na margem do rio, nas estações de caminho-de-ferro ou do metropolitano apropriado para o embarque e desembarque de pessoas ou mercadorias | nome vulgar do óxido de cálcio (também chamado cal viva, cal virgem ou cal cáustica) |
Where the eye mixes cais and cal
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses cais with cal
A purely visual mix-up. cais (/ˈkajʃ/) and cal (/ˈkaɫ/) 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 22068, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cais is recorded at frequency rank #10,845, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkajʃ/. cal is at rank #11,223, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkaɫ/.
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 22068, this pair ranks #48,066 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cais vs cal
Shared letters: ac. Private to "cais": is. Private to "cal": l.
"cais" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "cal" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- cais ← acis · caiss · casi · ccais · cias
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cais" and "cal" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "cais" vs "cal" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "cais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cal" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #48,066 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cais" and "cal" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cal vs chau". 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 #48,066 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.