carênciavscoerênciaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“carência” and “coerência” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#9,633
“carência” frequency rank
#16,965
“coerência” frequency rank
26598
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature carência coerência
Definition falta, penúria, privação congruência, nexo, ligação harmônica

Where the eye mixes carência and coerência

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. carência runs 8 letters (CVCVCCVV) against coerência's 9 (CVVCVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
carência
9 ch
coerência

Look-alike desk: carência vs coerência

A purely visual mix-up. carência (/kɐ.ˈɾẽ.sjɐ/) and coerência (/kwe.ˈɾẽ.sjɐ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26598, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

carência is recorded at frequency rank #9,633, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɐ.ˈɾẽ.sjɐ/. coerência is at rank #16,965, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kwe.ˈɾẽ.sjɐ/.

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 26598, this pair ranks #42,531 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of carência vs coerência

Shared letters: acinrê. Private to "carência": -. Private to "coerência": eo.

"carência" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVV  ·  "coerência" · 9 letters · shape CVVCVCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "carência" and "coerência" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/kɐ.ˈɾẽ.sjɐ/ versus /kwe.ˈɾẽ.sjɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "carência" or "coerência" show up more?
"carência" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,633 in our Portuguese list, against #16,965 for "coerência". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "carência" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "coerência" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #42,531 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "carência" and "coerência" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cadência vs carência". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #42,531 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