calãovscauçãoWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#39,032
“calão” frequency rank
#43,325
“caução” frequency rank
82357
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature calão caução
Definition que não trabalha tanto quanto deveria valor depositado como garantia de realização de um compromisso

Letter map: calão vs caução

Shared letters muted; letters that set calão and caução apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. calão runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against caução's 6 (CVVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
calão
6 ch
caução

Part-of-speech tell for calão / caução

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: calão is anadjective and cauçãoanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82357, 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/. caução is at rank #43,325, tagged as anoun.

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 82357, this pair ranks #1,043 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of calão vs caução

Shared letters: acoã. Private to "calão": l. Private to "caução": uç.

"calão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "caução" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "calão" and "caução" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "calão" is an adjective and "caução" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "calão" or "caução"?
"calão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #39,032 in our Portuguese list, against #43,325 for "caução". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "calão" and "caução". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "calão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "caução" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,043 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "calão" and "caução" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caução vs caudal". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,043 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