catavscriaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#31,681
“cata” frequency rank
#2,414
“cria” frequency rank
34095
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cata cria
Definition busca animal de mama

Where the eye mixes cata and cria

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. cata (CVCV) and cria (CCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
cata
4 ch
cria

Why the eye confuses cata with cria

A purely visual mix-up. cata (/ˈka.tɐ/) and cria (/ˈkɾi.ɐ/) 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 34095, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cata is recorded at frequency rank #31,681, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈka.tɐ/. cria is at rank #2,414, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɾi.ɐ/.

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 34095, this pair ranks #33,267 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cata vs cria

Shared letters: ac. Private to "cata": t. Private to "cria": ir.

"cata" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cria" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cata ← acta · caat · catta · ccata · ctaa
  • cria ← ccria · cira · crai · crria · rcia

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cata" for "cria" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈka.tɐ/ versus /ˈkɾi.ɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cata" or "cria" show up more?
"cria" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,414 in our Portuguese list, against #31,681 for "cata". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "cata" and "cria" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cata" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cria" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #33,267 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cata" and "cria" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cata vs copta". 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 #33,267 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