cárievscartelWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#40,971
“cárie” frequency rank
#9,150
“cartel” frequency rank
50121
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cárie cartel
Definition ulceração nos dentes e ossos, que os destrói progressivamente acordo comercial entre empresas para estabelecerem monopólio, distribuindo entre si os mercados e determinando os preços

Where the eye mixes cárie and cartel

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cárie runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against cartel's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
cárie
6 ch
cartel

Visual trap between cárie and cartel

A purely visual mix-up. cárie (/ˈka.ɾji/) and cartel (/kɐɾ.ˈtɛɫ/) 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 50121, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cárie is recorded at frequency rank #40,971, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈka.ɾji/. cartel is at rank #9,150, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɐɾ.ˈtɛɫ/.

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 50121, this pair ranks #14,854 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cárie vs cartel

Shared letters: cer. Private to "cárie": iá. Private to "cartel": alt.

"cárie" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "cartel" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cartel ← acrtel · caretl · carrtel · cartell · cartle · carttel · catrel · ccartel

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cárie" for "cartel" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈka.ɾji/ versus /kɐɾ.ˈtɛɫ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cárie" vs "cartel" - which ranks higher?
"cartel" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,150 in our Portuguese list, against #40,971 for "cárie". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cárie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cartel" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #14,854 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cárie" and "cartel" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cárie vs carpet". 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 #14,854 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