cevscriTell them apart

Quick tell: ce is a pronoun, cri is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ce” is a pronoun and “cri” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,311
“ce” frequency rank
#28,523
“cri” frequency rank
31834
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ce cri
Definition o que 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 ce and cri

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

2 ch
ce
3 ch
cri

Look-alike desk: ce vs cri

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ce is /t͡ʃe/ while cri is /ˈkɾi/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (pronoun vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31834, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ce is recorded at frequency rank #3,311, classified as apron, pronounced /t͡ʃe/. 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 31834, this pair ranks #36,134 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ce vs cri

Shared letters: c. Private to "ce": e. Private to "cri": ir.

"ce" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "cri" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ce" and "cri" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ce" is a pronoun and "cri" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "ce" or "cri" show up more?
"ce" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,311 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

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ce" 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 #36,134 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ce" and "cri" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coin vs cri". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #36,134 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