capazvscepaTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#1,041
“capaz” frequency rank
#40,036
“cepa” frequency rank
41077
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature capaz cepa
Definition que tem o conhecimento ou habilidade para fazer algo tronco de videira

Where the eye mixes capaz and cepa

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

5 ch
capaz
4 ch
cepa

Visual trap between capaz and cepa

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: capaz is /kɐ.ˈpaʃ/ while cepa is /ˈse.pɐ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41077, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

capaz is recorded at frequency rank #1,041, classified as anadj, pronounced /kɐ.ˈpaʃ/. cepa is at rank #40,036, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈse.pɐ/.

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 41077, this pair ranks #24,926 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of capaz vs cepa

Shared letters: acp. Private to "capaz": z. Private to "cepa": e.

"capaz" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "cepa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • capazacpaz · caapz · capazz · cappaz · capza · ccapaz · cpaaz
  • cepaccepa · ceap · ceppa · cpea · ecpa

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "capaz" and "cepa" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "capaz" is an adjective and "cepa" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "capaz" or "cepa" show up more?
"capaz" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,041 in our Portuguese list, against #40,036 for "cepa". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "capaz" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cepa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #24,926 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "capaz" and "cepa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cepa vs cerda". 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 #24,926 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