caladavscevadaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“calada” and “cevada” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#9,304
“calada” frequency rank
#28,498
“cevada” frequency rank
37802
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature calada cevada
Definition ato ou efeito de calar-se planta (Hordeum vulgare) da família das gramíneas, cultivada como cereal

Where the eye mixes calada and cevada

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. calada and cevada follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
calada
6 ch
cevada

Look-alike desk: calada vs cevada

A purely visual mix-up. calada (/kɐ.ˈla.dɐ/) and cevada (/sɨ.ˈva.dɐ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37802, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

calada is recorded at frequency rank #9,304, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɐ.ˈla.dɐ/. cevada is at rank #28,498, tagged as anoun, pronounced /sɨ.ˈva.dɐ/.

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 37802, this pair ranks #28,767 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of calada vs cevada

Shared letters: acd. Private to "calada": l. Private to "cevada": ev.

"calada" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "cevada" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • calada ← aclada · caalda · calaad · caladda · caldaa · callada · ccalada · claada
  • cevada ← ccevada · ceavda · cevaad · cevadda · cevdaa · cevvada · cveada · ecvada

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "calada" for "cevada" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/kɐ.ˈla.dɐ/ versus /sɨ.ˈva.dɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "calada" or "cevada"?
"calada" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,304 in our Portuguese list, against #28,498 for "cevada". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "calada" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cevada" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #28,767 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "calada" and "cevada" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cerda vs cevada". 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 #28,767 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