Which to use
“cárcere” and “carpete” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #19,673
- “cárcere” frequency rank
- #29,267
- “carpete” frequency rank
- 48940
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cárcere | carpete |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | cadeia, prisão | grande tapete |
Where the eye mixes cárcere and carpete
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cárcere and carpete follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between cárcere and carpete
A purely visual mix-up. cárcere (/ˈkaɾ.sɨ.ɾɨ/) and carpete (/kaɾ.ˈpɛ.tɨ/) 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 48940, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cárcere is recorded at frequency rank #19,673, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkaɾ.sɨ.ɾɨ/. carpete is at rank #29,267, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kaɾ.ˈpɛ.tɨ/.
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 48940, this pair ranks #16,177 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of cárcere vs carpete
Shared letters: cer. Private to "cárcere": á. Private to "carpete": apt.
"cárcere" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV · "carpete" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- carpete ← acrpete · caprete · carepte · carpeet · carpette · carppete · carptee · carrpete
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "cárcere" for "carpete" ever safe?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cárcere" or "carpete" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "cárcere" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "carpete" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #16,177 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cárcere" and "carpete" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "capeta vs carpete". 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 #16,177 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.