camavscumWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: cama is a noun, cum is a preposition, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cama” is a noun and “cum” is a preposition - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#982
“cama” frequency rank
#29,299
“cum” frequency rank
30281
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cama cum
Definition móvel, normalmente plano e macio, usado para dormir usado para indicar algo com duas funções, ou então que tenha se modificado de uma coisa para outra:

Where the eye mixes cama and cum

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
cama
3 ch
cum

Visual trap between cama and cum

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cama is /ˈkɐ.mɐ/ while cum is /kʌm/. 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 (noun vs preposition), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30281, 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/. cum is at rank #29,299, tagged as aprep, pronounced /kʌm/.

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 30281, this pair ranks #38,123 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cama vs cum

Shared letters: cm. Private to "cama": a. Private to "cum": u.

"cama" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cum" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • camaacma · caam · camma · ccama · cmaa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cama" for "cum" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cama" is a noun and "cum" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cama" or "cum" show up more?
"cama" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #982 in our Portuguese list, against #29,299 for "cum". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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 "cum" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #38,123 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cama" and "cum" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cham vs cum". 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 #38,123 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