carecavscargaWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#10,848
“careca” frequency rank
#2,309
“carga” frequency rank
13157
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature careca carga
Definition falta de cabelo na cabeça; calvo o que pode ser ou é transportado por pessoas, animais ou veículos

Where the eye mixes careca and carga

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
careca
5 ch
carga

Why the eye confuses careca with carga

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: careca is /kɐ.ˈɾɛ.kɐ/ while carga is /ˈkaɾ.ɡɐ/. 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 13157, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

careca is recorded at frequency rank #10,848, classified as anadj, pronounced /kɐ.ˈɾɛ.kɐ/. carga is at rank #2,309, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkaɾ.ɡɐ/.

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 13157, this pair ranks #59,287 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of careca vs carga

Shared letters: acr. Private to "careca": e. Private to "carga": g.

"careca" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "carga" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • carecacarcea · careac · carecca · carreca · ccareca · craeca
  • cargaacrga · cagra · carag · cargga · carrga · ccarga · craga

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "careca" and "carga" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "careca" is an adjective and "carga" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "careca" or "carga" show up more?
"carga" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,309 in our Portuguese list, against #10,848 for "careca". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "careca" and "carga" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "careca" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "carga" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #59,287 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "careca" and "carga" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "careca vs carrera". 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 #59,287 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