cárievsCátiaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#40,971
“cárie” frequency rank
#27,428
“Cátia” frequency rank
68399
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cárie Cátia
Definition ulceração nos dentes e ossos, que os destrói progressivamente prenome feminino

Where the eye mixes cárie and Cátia

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cárie and Cátia follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
cárie
5 ch
Cátia

Look-alike desk: cárie vs Cátia

A purely visual mix-up. cárie (/ˈka.ɾji/) and Cátia (/ˈka.t͡ʃjɐ/) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68399, 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/. Cátia is at rank #27,428, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈka.t͡ʃjɐ/.

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 68399, this pair ranks #4,288 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cárie vs Cátia

Shared letters: ciá. Private to "cárie": er. Private to "Cátia": at.

"cárie" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "Cátia" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cárie" and "Cátia" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈka.ɾji/ versus /ˈka.t͡ʃjɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cárie" vs "Cátia" - which ranks higher?
"Cátia" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,428 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.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cárie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Cátia" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #4,288 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cárie" and "Cátia" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cárie vs carpet". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #4,288 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