Which to use
“cais” and “cat” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,845
- “cais” frequency rank
- #7,740
- “cat” frequency rank
- 18585
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cais | cat |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | gato (Felis catus) |
Where the eye mixes cais and cat
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses cais with cat
A purely visual mix-up. cais (/ˈkajʃ/) and cat (/kʰaʰt̪/) 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 18585, 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/. cat is at rank #7,740, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kʰaʰt̪/.
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 18585, this pair ranks #52,377 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cais vs cat
Shared letters: ac. Private to "cais": is. Private to "cat": t.
"cais" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "cat" · 3 letters · shape CVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- cais ← acis · caiss · casi · ccais · cias
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cais" for "cat" ever safe?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cais" or "cat" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "cais" and "cat" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cais" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cat" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #52,377 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cais" and "cat" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cat 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 #52,377 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.