Which to use
“cais” and “cats” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #10,845
- “cais” frequency rank
- #31,281
- “cats” frequency rank
- 42126
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cais | cats |
|---|---|---|
| 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 | plural de cat |
Where the eye mixes cais and cats
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cais (CVVC) and cats (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Why the eye confuses cais with cats
A purely visual mix-up. cais (/ˈkajʃ/) and cats (/kæts/) 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 a single letter - i in “cais” becomes t in “cats”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42126, 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/. cats is at rank #31,281, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kæts/.
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 42126, this pair ranks #23,700 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cais vs cats
Shared letters: acs. Private to "cais": i. Private to "cats": t.
"cais" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "cats" · 4 letters · shape CVCC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cais" and "cats" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Frequency check: "cais" vs "cats" - 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 "cats" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #23,700 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cais" and "cats" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cactus vs cats". 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 #23,700 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.