catvscriTell them apart

Which to use

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

#7,740
“cat” frequency rank
#28,523
“cri” frequency rank
36263
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cat cri
Definition gato (Felis catus) povo indígena da América do Norte, que habitava desde as montanhas Rochosas até o oceano Atlântico, tanto nos Estados Unidos da América quanto no Canadá

Where the eye mixes cat and cri

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence.

3 ch
cat
3 ch
cri

Visual trap between cat and cri

A purely visual mix-up. cat (/kʰaʰt̪/) and cri (/ˈkɾi/) 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 36263, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cat is recorded at frequency rank #7,740, classified as anoun, pronounced /kʰaʰt̪/. cri is at rank #28,523, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɾi/.

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 36263, this pair ranks #30,598 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cat vs cri

Shared letters: c. Private to "cat": at. Private to "cri": ir.

"cat" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "cri" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cat" and "cri" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/kʰaʰt̪/ versus /ˈkɾi/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cat" or "cri" show up more?
"cat" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,740 in our Portuguese list, against #28,523 for "cri". 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 "cat" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cri" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #30,598 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cat" and "cri" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coin vs cri". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #30,598 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