camavschamWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#982
“cama” frequency rank
#44,752
“cham” frequency rank
45734
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cama cham
Definition móvel, normalmente plano e macio, usado para dormir um certo tipo de autocrata

Where the eye mixes cama and cham

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cama (CVCV) and cham (CCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
cama
4 ch
cham

Why the eye confuses cama with cham

A purely visual mix-up. cama (/ˈkɐ.mɐ/) and cham (/kæm/) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45734, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cama is recorded at frequency rank #982, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɐ.mɐ/. cham is at rank #44,752, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kæm/.

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 45734, this pair ranks #19,662 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cama vs cham

Shared letters: acm. Private to "cama": -. Private to "cham": h.

"cama" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cham" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cama ← acma · caam · camma · ccama · cmaa
  • cham ← cahm · ccham · chamm · chham · chma · hcam

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cama" and "cham" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈkɐ.mɐ/ versus /kæm/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cama" vs "cham" - which ranks higher?
"cama" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #982 in our Portuguese list, against #44,752 for "cham". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cama" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cham" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #19,662 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cama" and "cham" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cham vs chau". 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 #19,662 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