casarãovscatarroTell them apart

Which to use

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

#22,902
“casarão” frequency rank
#44,261
“catarro” frequency rank
67163
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature casarão catarro
Definition aumentativo de casa; casa grande muco secretado, geralmente patológico

Where the eye mixes casarão and catarro

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. casarão (CVCVCVV) and catarro (CVCVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
casarão
7 ch
catarro

Look-alike desk: casarão vs catarro

A purely visual mix-up. casarão (/kɐ.zɐ.ˈɾɐ̃w̃/) and catarro (/kɐ.ˈta.Ru/) 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 67163, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

casarão is recorded at frequency rank #22,902, classified as anoun, pronounced /kɐ.zɐ.ˈɾɐ̃w̃/. catarro is at rank #44,261, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɐ.ˈta.Ru/.

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 67163, this pair ranks #4,733 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of casarão vs catarro

Shared letters: acor. Private to "casarão": sã. Private to "catarro": t.

"casarão" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV  ·  "catarro" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • catarro ← actarro · caatrro · cataro · cataror · catraro · cattarro · ccatarro · ctaarro

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "casarão" and "catarro" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/kɐ.zɐ.ˈɾɐ̃w̃/ versus /kɐ.ˈta.Ru/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "casarão" or "catarro" show up more?
"casarão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,902 in our Portuguese list, against #44,261 for "catarro". 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 "casarão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "catarro" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #4,733 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "casarão" and "catarro" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cadarço vs catarro". 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 #4,733 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