carreirovscarteiraWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#39,517
“carreiro” frequency rank
#3,459
“carteira” frequency rank
42976
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature carreiro carteira
Definition condutor de carro de bois; guieiro, candeeiro bolsa, geralmente de couro, com divisões para guardar dinheiro, papéis, etc

Where the eye mixes carreiro and carteira

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. carreiro and carteira follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
carreiro
8 ch
carteira

Look-alike desk: carreiro vs carteira

A purely visual mix-up. carreiro (/kɐ.ˈRɐj.ɾu/) and carteira (/kɐɾ.ˈtɐj.ɾɐ/) 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 42976, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

carreiro is recorded at frequency rank #39,517, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɐ.ˈRɐj.ɾu/. carteira is at rank #3,459, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɐɾ.ˈtɐj.ɾɐ/.

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 42976, this pair ranks #22,720 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of carreiro vs carteira

Shared letters: aceir. Private to "carreiro": o. Private to "carteira": t.

"carreiro" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV  ·  "carteira" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • carreiroacrreiro · careiro · careriro · carreior · carreirro · carrerio · carriero · ccarreiro
  • carteiraacrteira · caretira · carrteira · carteiar · carteirra · carteria · cartiera · cartteira

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "carreiro" for "carteira" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/kɐ.ˈRɐj.ɾu/ versus /kɐɾ.ˈtɐj.ɾɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "carreiro" or "carteira"?
"carteira" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,459 in our Portuguese list, against #39,517 for "carreiro". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "carreiro" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "carteira" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #22,720 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "carreiro" and "carteira" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "carreiro vs carrera". 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 #22,720 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