cárievscharmeWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#40,971
“cárie” frequency rank
#8,165
“charme” frequency rank
49136
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cárie charme
Definition ulceração nos dentes e ossos, que os destrói progressivamente charme ¹

Where the eye mixes cárie and charme

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

5 ch
cárie
6 ch
charme

Visual trap between cárie and charme

A purely visual mix-up. cárie (/ˈka.ɾji/) and charme (/ʃaʁm/) 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 49136, 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/. charme is at rank #8,165, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ʃaʁm/.

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 49136, this pair ranks #15,943 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cárie vs charme

Shared letters: cer. Private to "cárie": iá. Private to "charme": ahm.

"cárie" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "charme" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • charme ← cahrme · ccharme · chamre · charem · charmme · charrme · chharme · chrame

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cárie" for "charme" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈka.ɾji/ versus /ʃaʁm/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cárie" vs "charme" - which ranks higher?
"charme" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,165 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

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cárie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "charme" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #15,943 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cárie" and "charme" 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 #15,943 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