casacavscavalaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#37,223
“casaca” frequency rank
#35,922
“cavala” frequency rank
73145
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature casaca cavala
Definition paletó curto na frente, na altura da cintura e comprido atrás, com duas abas; vestuário de origem europeia e usado pelos aristocratas peixe teleósteo da família dos escombrídeos

Where the eye mixes casaca and cavala

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. casaca and cavala follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
casaca
6 ch
cavala

Look-alike desk: casaca vs cavala

A purely visual mix-up. casaca (/kɐ.ˈza.kɐ/) and cavala (/kɐ.ˈva.lɐ/) 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 73145, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

casaca is recorded at frequency rank #37,223, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɐ.ˈza.kɐ/. cavala is at rank #35,922, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɐ.ˈva.lɐ/.

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 73145, this pair ranks #2,859 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of casaca vs cavala

Shared letters: ac. Private to "casaca": s. Private to "cavala": lv.

"casaca" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "cavala" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • casaca ← acsaca · caasca · casaac · casacca · cascaa · cassaca · ccasaca · csaaca
  • cavala ← acvala · caavla · cavaal · cavalla · cavlaa · cavvala · ccavala · cvaala

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "casaca" and "cavala" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/kɐ.ˈza.kɐ/ versus /kɐ.ˈva.lɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "casaca" or "cavala"?
"cavala" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,922 in our Portuguese list, against #37,223 for "casaca". 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 "casaca" and "cavala" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "casaca" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cavala" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,859 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "casaca" and "cavala" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "casaca vs cassada". 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 #2,859 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