canhãovscauçãoTell them apart

Quick tell: canhão is a adjective, caução is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“canhão” is an adjective and “caução” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,596
“canhão” frequency rank
#43,325
“caução” frequency rank
54921
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature canhão caução
Definition mulher muito feia valor depositado como garantia de realização de um compromisso

Letter map: canhão vs caução

Shared letters muted; letters that set canhão and caução apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. canhão (CVCCVV) and caução (CVVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
canhão
6 ch
caução

Part-of-speech tell for canhão / caução

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: canhão is anadjective and cauçãoanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54921, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

canhão is recorded at frequency rank #11,596, classified as anadj, pronounced /kɐ.ˈɲɐ̃w̃/. 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 54921, this pair ranks #10,931 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of canhão vs caução

Shared letters: acoã. Private to "canhão": hn. Private to "caução": uç.

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "canhão" and "caução" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "canhão" is an adjective and "caução" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "canhão" or "caução"?
"canhão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,596 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.

What to do next

You've compared "canhão" and "caução". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "canhão" 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 #10,931 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "canhão" and "caução" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caução vs caudal". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #10,931 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