caracavscarasWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: caraca is a intj, caras is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“caraca” is an intj and “caras” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#38,169
“caraca” frequency rank
#1,736
“caras” frequency rank
39905
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caraca caras
Definition expressa admiração, espanto; insatisfação, repreensão feminino plural de caro

Letter map: caraca vs caras

Shared letters muted; letters that set caraca and caras apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. caraca runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against caras's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
caraca
5 ch
caras

Part-of-speech tell for caraca / caras

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: caraca is anintj and carasanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39905, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

caraca is recorded at frequency rank #38,169, classified as anintj, pronounced /ka.ˈɾa.kɐ/. caras is at rank #1,736, tagged as anadj.

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 39905, this pair ranks #26,271 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of caraca vs caras

Shared letters: acr. Private to "caraca": -. Private to "caras": s.

"caraca" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "caras" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caraca ← acraca · caarca · caraac · caracca · carcaa · carraca · ccaraca · craaca
  • caras ← acras · caars · carass · carras · carsa · ccaras · craas

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "caraca" and "caras" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "caraca" is an intj and "caras" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "caraca" or "caras"?
"caras" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,736 in our Portuguese list, against #38,169 for "caraca". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "caraca" and "caras".

  • Full dictionary entry for "caraca" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "caras" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #26,271 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caraca" and "caras" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caraca vs carapaça". 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 #26,271 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