Which to use
“cal” is a noun and “cão” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,223
- “cal” frequency rank
- #3,065
- “cão” frequency rank
- 14288
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cal | cão |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | nome vulgar do óxido de cálcio (também chamado cal viva, cal virgem ou cal cáustica) | cruel, brutal, dominador |
Where the eye mixes cal and cão
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.
Visual trap between cal and cão
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cal is /ˈkaɫ/ while cão is /ˈkɐ̃ũ̯/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14288, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cal is recorded at frequency rank #11,223, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkaɫ/. cão is at rank #3,065, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈkɐ̃ũ̯/.
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 14288, this pair ranks #57,855 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of cal vs cão
Shared letters: c. Private to "cal": al. Private to "cão": oã.
"cal" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "cão" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cal" and "cão" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cal" or "cão" show up more?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "cal" and "cão" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cal" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "cão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #57,855 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cal" and "cão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cal vs chau". Nearby pair
Confusion rank #57,855 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.