cauçãovscausalWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: caução is a noun, causal is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“caução” is a noun and “causal” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,325
“caução” frequency rank
#37,225
“causal” frequency rank
80550
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caução causal
Definition valor depositado como garantia de realização de um compromisso relativo a causa

Letter map: caução vs causal

Shared letters muted; letters that set caução and causal apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. caução (CVVCVV) and causal (CVVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
caução
6 ch
causal

Grammar separator: caução vs causal

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: caução is anoun and causalanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80550, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

caução is recorded at frequency rank #43,325, classified as anoun. causal is at rank #37,225, tagged as anadj, pronounced /kaw.ˈzaɫ/.

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 80550, this pair ranks #1,303 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of caução vs causal

Shared letters: acu. Private to "caução": oãç. Private to "causal": ls.

"caução" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVV  ·  "causal" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • causal ← acusal · cauasl · causall · causla · caussal · ccausal · cuasal

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "caução" for "causal" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "caução" is a noun and "causal" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "caução" or "causal"?
"causal" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,225 in our Portuguese list, against #43,325 for "caução". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "caução" and "causal". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "caução" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "causal" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,303 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caução" and "causal" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caução vs caudal". 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 #1,303 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