canecovscaroçoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#37,218
“caneco” frequency rank
#26,999
“caroço” frequency rank
64217
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caneco caroço
Definition caneca alta e estreita semente de um fruto

Where the eye mixes caneco and caroço

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. caneco and caroço follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
caneco
6 ch
caroço

Visual trap between caneco and caroço

A purely visual mix-up. caneco (/kɐ.ˈnɛ.ku/) and caroço (/kɐ.'ɾo.su/) 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 64217, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

caneco is recorded at frequency rank #37,218, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɐ.ˈnɛ.ku/. caroço is at rank #26,999, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɐ.'ɾo.su/.

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 64217, this pair ranks #5,867 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of caneco vs caroço

Shared letters: aco. Private to "caneco": en. Private to "caroço": rç.

"caneco" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "caroço" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caneco ← acneco · caenco · canceo · canecco · caneoc · canneco · ccaneco · cnaeco

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "caneco" for "caroço" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/kɐ.ˈnɛ.ku/ versus /kɐ.'ɾo.su/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "caneco" or "caroço" show up more?
"caroço" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,999 in our Portuguese list, against #37,218 for "caneco". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "caneco" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "caroço" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,867 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caneco" and "caroço" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caneco vs cianeto". 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 #5,867 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