calãovscapôWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#39,032
“calão” frequency rank
#31,676
“capô” frequency rank
70708
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature calão capô
Definition que não trabalha tanto quanto deveria cobertura que protege o motor de um veículo

Where the eye mixes calão and capô

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. calão runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against capô's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
calão
4 ch
capô

Visual trap between calão and capô

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: calão is /kɐ.ˈlɐ̃w̃/ while capô is /ka.ˈpo/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70708, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

calão is recorded at frequency rank #39,032, classified as anadj, pronounced /kɐ.ˈlɐ̃w̃/. capô is at rank #31,676, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ka.ˈpo/.

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 70708, this pair ranks #3,546 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of calão vs capô

Shared letters: ac. Private to "calão": loã. Private to "capô": pô.

"calão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "capô" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "calão" and "capô" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "calão" is an adjective and "capô" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "calão" or "capô" show up more?
"capô" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,676 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.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "calão" and "capô" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "calão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "capô" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #3,546 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "calão" and "capô" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "calão vs ciao". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #3,546 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