caravscarizWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: cara is a preposition, cariz is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cara” is a preposition and “cariz” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#195
“cara” frequency rank
#29,265
“cariz” frequency rank
29460
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cara cariz
Definition em direção a, para, contra semblante; aspecto

Letter map: cara vs cariz

Shared letters muted; letters that set cara and cariz apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. cara runs 4 letters (CVCV) against cariz's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
cara
5 ch
cariz

Grammar separator: cara vs cariz

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: cara is apreposition and carizanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29460, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cara is recorded at frequency rank #195, classified as aprep. cariz is at rank #29,265, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɐ.ˈɾiʃ/.

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 29460, this pair ranks #39,159 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cara vs cariz

Shared letters: acr. Private to "cara": -. Private to "cariz": iz.

"cara" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cariz" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cara ← acra · caar · carra · ccara · craa
  • cariz ← acriz · cairz · carizz · carriz · carzi · ccariz · craiz

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cara" and "cariz" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cara" is a preposition and "cariz" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cara" or "cariz" show up more?
"cara" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #195 in our Portuguese list, against #29,265 for "cariz". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "cara" and "cariz". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cara" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cariz" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #39,159 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cara" and "cariz" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cárie vs cariz". 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 #39,159 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