cauçãovscoaçãoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#43,325
“caução” frequency rank
#27,403
“coação” frequency rank
70728
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caução coação
Definition valor depositado como garantia de realização de um compromisso ação de coar; coa:

Letter map: caução vs coação

Shared letters muted; letters that set caução and coação apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. caução and coação follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
caução
6 ch
coação

Corpus notes: caução and coação

caução and coação are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 70728, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

caução is recorded at frequency rank #43,325, classified as anoun. coação is at rank #27,403, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kwa.ˈsɐ̃w̃/.

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 70728, this pair ranks #3,540 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of caução vs coação

Shared letters: acoãç. Private to "caução": u. Private to "coação": -.

"caução" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVV  ·  "coação" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "caução" and "coação" be used interchangeably?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "caução" vs "coação" - which ranks higher?
"coação" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,403 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 "coação". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "caução" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "coação" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #3,540 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caução" and "coação" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caução vs caudal". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #3,540 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