cânon vs cão, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#45,275
“cânon” frequency rank: #3,065
“cão” frequency rank: 48340
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	cânon	cão
Definition	vide cânone	cruel, brutal, dominador

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set cânon and cão apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch

cânon

3 ch

cão

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cânon is /ˈkɐ.non/ while cão is /ˈkɐ̃ũ̯/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48340, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cânon is recorded at frequency rank #45,275, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɐ.non/. cão is at rank #3,065, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈkɐ̃ũ̯/.

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 48340, this pair ranks #16,834 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cânon vs cão

Shared letters: co. Private to "cânon": nâ. Private to "cão": ã.

"cânon" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "cão" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Frequency comparison

cânon#45,275

cão#3,065

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cânon" and "cão" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cânon" is a noun and "cão" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "cânon" or "cão"?

"cão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,065 in our Portuguese list, against #45,275 for "cânon". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering cânon vs cão

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “cânon”; for an adjective, it's “cão”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “cânon” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable