caosvscostConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#4,128
“caos” frequency rank
#22,928
“cost” frequency rank
27056
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caos cost
Definition espaço limitado e amorfo que precedeu à criação do cosmo custo

Where the eye mixes caos and cost

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
caos
4 ch
cost

Visual trap between caos and cost

A purely visual mix-up. caos (/ˈkaws/) and cost (/ˈkɔst/) 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 27056, 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/. cost is at rank #22,928, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɔst/.

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 27056, this pair ranks #41,966 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of caos vs cost

Shared letters: cos. Private to "caos": a. Private to "cost": t.

"caos" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "cost" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caosacos · caoss · ccaos · coas
  • costccost · cosst · costt · cots · csot · ocst

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "caos" and "cost" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈkaws/ versus /ˈkɔst/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "caos" vs "cost" - which ranks higher?
"caos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,128 in our Portuguese list, against #22,928 for "cost". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "caos" and "cost" 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 "cost" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #41,966 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caos" and "cost" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "copta vs cost". 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 #41,966 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