carmavscarrãoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#32,094
“carma” frequency rank
#30,869
“carrão” frequency rank
62963
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature carma carrão
Definition 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 andorinhão-real, (Tachymarptis melba)

Where the eye mixes carma and carrão

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

5 ch
carma
6 ch
carrão

Why the eye confuses carma with carrão

A purely visual mix-up. carma (/ˈkɐɾmɐ/) and carrão (singular: /ka.'raŋ/ ou /ka.'raw/) 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 62963, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

carma is recorded at frequency rank #32,094, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɐɾmɐ/. carrão is at rank #30,869, tagged as anoun, pronounced singular: /ka.'raŋ/ ou /ka.'raw/.

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 62963, this pair ranks #6,425 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of carma vs carrão

Shared letters: acr. Private to "carma": m. Private to "carrão": oã.

"carma" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "carrão" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • carma ← acrma · camra · caram · carmma · carrma · ccarma · crama

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "carma" for "carrão" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈkɐɾmɐ/ versus singular: /ka.'raŋ/ ou /ka.'raw/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "carma" vs "carrão" - which ranks higher?
"carrão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,869 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.

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 "carma" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "carrão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #6,425 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "carma" and "carrão" 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 #6,425 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