cajadovscalãoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: cajado is a noun, calão is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cajado” is a noun and “calão” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30,862
“cajado” frequency rank
#39,032
“calão” frequency rank
69894
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cajado calão
Definition amparo de pastor, geralmente com a ponta superior em arco; bordão: que não trabalha tanto quanto deveria

Letter map: cajado vs calão

Shared letters muted; letters that set cajado and calão apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. cajado runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against calão's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
cajado
5 ch
calão

Role in the sentence - cajado and calão

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: cajado is anoun and calãoanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 69894, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cajado is recorded at frequency rank #30,862, classified as anoun. calão is at rank #39,032, tagged as anadj, pronounced /kɐ.ˈlɐ̃w̃/.

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 69894, this pair ranks #3,806 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cajado vs calão

Shared letters: aco. Private to "cajado": dj. Private to "calão": lã.

"cajado" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "calão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cajado ← acjado · caajdo · cajaddo · cajaod · cajdao · cajjado · ccajado · cjaado

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cajado" and "calão" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cajado" is a noun and "calão" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "cajado" or "calão"?
"cajado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,862 in our Portuguese list, against #39,032 for "calão". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "cajado" and "calão".

  • Full dictionary entry for "cajado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "calão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #3,806 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cajado" and "calão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "calão vs ciao". 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 #3,806 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