calçãovscauçãoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#29,621
“calção” frequency rank
#43,325
“caução” frequency rank
72946
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature calção caução
Definition calça curta valor depositado como garantia de realização de um compromisso

Letter map: calção vs caução

Shared letters muted; letters that set calção and caução apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. calção (CVCCVV) and caução (CVVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
calção
6 ch
caução

Spelling & dictionary notes on calção vs caução

calção and caução are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - l in “calção” becomes u in “caução”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72946, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

calção is recorded at frequency rank #29,621, classified as anoun, pronounced /kaɫ.ˈsɐ̃w̃/. 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 72946, this pair ranks #2,901 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of calção vs caução

Shared letters: acoãç. Private to "calção": l. Private to "caução": u.

"calção" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "caução" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "calção" for "caução" ever safe?
No. They differ by a single letter - l in “calção” becomes u in “caução”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "calção" or "caução" show up more?
"calção" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,621 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.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "calção" and "caução".

  • Full dictionary entry for "calção" 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 #2,901 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "calção" and "caução" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caução vs caudal". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #2,901 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