cão vs cat, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#3,065
“cão” frequency rank: #7,740
“cat” frequency rank: 10805
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	cão	cat
Definition	cruel, brutal, dominador	gato (Felis catus)

Where the eye mixes cão and cat

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch

cão

3 ch

cat

Visual trap between cão and cat

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cão is /ˈkɐ̃ũ̯/ while cat is /kʰaʰt̪/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10805, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cão is recorded at frequency rank #3,065, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈkɐ̃ũ̯/. cat is at rank #7,740, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kʰaʰt̪/.

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 10805, this pair ranks #62,208 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cão vs cat

Shared letters: c. Private to "cão": oã. Private to "cat": at.

"cão" · 3 letters · shape CVV · "cat" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

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

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

In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cão" or "cat" show up more?

"cão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,065 in our Portuguese list, against #7,740 for "cat". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

Full dictionary entry for "cão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "cat" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #62,208 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"cão" and "cat" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cat vs chau". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #62,208 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.