calevscauleConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#17,719
“cale” frequency rank
#35,921
“caule” frequency rank
53640
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cale caule
Definition calço, cunha, escora, apoio a parte aérea do eixo principal das plantas superiores, ligada à raiz, e da qual se desenvolvem os ramos e as folhas

Where the eye mixes cale and caule

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
cale
5 ch
caule

Visual trap between cale and caule

A purely visual mix-up. cale (/kal/) and caule (/ˈkaw.lɨ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53640, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cale is recorded at frequency rank #17,719, classified as anoun, pronounced /kal/. caule is at rank #35,921, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkaw.lɨ/.

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 53640, this pair ranks #11,890 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cale vs caule

Shared letters: acel. Private to "cale": -. Private to "caule": u.

"cale" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "caule" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caleacle · cael · calle · ccale · clae
  • cauleacule · calue · cauel · caulle · ccaule · cuale

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cale" and "caule" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/kal/ versus /ˈkaw.lɨ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cale" or "caule" show up more?
"cale" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,719 in our Portuguese list, against #35,921 for "caule". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cale" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "caule" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #11,890 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cale" and "caule" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cárie vs caule". 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 #11,890 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