Which to use
“capital” is an adjective and “capitão” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #579
- “capital” frequency rank
- #1,768
- “capitão” frequency rank
- 2347
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | capital | capitão |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | relativo à cabeça | chefe militar |
Letter map: capital vs capitão
Shared letters muted; letters that set capital and capitão apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. capital (CVCVCVC) and capitão (CVCVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Part-of-speech tell for capital / capitão
Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: capital is anadjective and capitãoanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2347, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
capital is recorded at frequency rank #579, classified as anadj. capitão is at rank #1,768, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɐ.pi.ˈtɐ̃w̃/.
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 2347, this pair ranks #73,062 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of capital vs capitão
Shared letters: acipt. Private to "capital": l. Private to "capitão": oã.
"capital" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC · "capitão" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- capital ← acpital · caiptal · capiatl · capitall · capitla · capittal · cappital · captial
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "capital" for "capitão" ever safe?
Which is more common, "capital" or "capitão"?
What to do next
Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "capital" and "capitão".
- Full dictionary entry for "capital" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "capitão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #73,062 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "capital" and "capitão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "capeta vs capitão". 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 #73,062 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.