caosvscapeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#4,128
“caos” frequency rank
#17,721
“cape” frequency rank
21849
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caos cape
Definition espaço limitado e amorfo que precedeu à criação do cosmo cabo

Where the eye mixes caos and cape

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

4 ch
caos
4 ch
cape

Look-alike desk: caos vs cape

A purely visual mix-up. caos (/ˈkaws/) and cape (/keɪp/, /keIp/) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21849, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

caos is recorded at frequency rank #4,128, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkaws/. cape is at rank #17,721, tagged as anoun, pronounced /keɪp/, /keIp/.

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 21849, this pair ranks #48,311 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of caos vs cape

Shared letters: ac. Private to "caos": os. Private to "cape": ep.

"caos" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "cape" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caosacos · caoss · ccaos · coas
  • capeacpe · caep · cappe · ccape · cpae

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "caos" for "cape" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈkaws/ versus /keɪp/, /keIp/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "caos" or "cape" show up more?
"caos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,128 in our Portuguese list, against #17,721 for "cape". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "caos" and "cape" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "caos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cape" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #48,311 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caos" and "cape" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cape vs caspa". 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 #48,311 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