carecavscarmaTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#10,848
“careca” frequency rank
#32,094
“carma” frequency rank
42942
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature careca carma
Definition falta de cabelo na cabeça; calvo segundo o hinduísmo e o budismo, a lei de causa e efeito, na qual todas as ações, boas ou más, de uma pessoa geram reações correspondentes nesta vida ou em encarnações futuras

Where the eye mixes careca and carma

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

6 ch
careca
5 ch
carma

Visual trap between careca and carma

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: careca is /kɐ.ˈɾɛ.kɐ/ while carma is /ˈkɐɾmɐ/. 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 42942, 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/. carma is at rank #32,094, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɐɾmɐ/.

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 42942, this pair ranks #22,756 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of careca vs carma

Shared letters: acr. Private to "careca": e. Private to "carma": m.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • carecacarcea · careac · carecca · carreca · ccareca · craeca
  • carmaacrma · camra · caram · carmma · carrma · ccarma · crama

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "careca" for "carma" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "careca" is an adjective and "carma" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "careca" or "carma"?
"careca" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,848 in our Portuguese list, against #32,094 for "carma". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "careca" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "carma" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #22,756 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "careca" and "carma" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "carma vs cerda". 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 #22,756 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