CEIvscruTell them apart

Quick tell: CEI is a abbrev, cru is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“CEI” is an abbrev and “cru” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#29,625
“CEI” frequency rank
#14,555
“cru” frequency rank
44180
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature CEI cru
Definition Communauté des États Indépendants (português: Comunidade dos Estados Independentes, CEI) que não foi cozido ou não foi cozido o suficiente

Where the eye mixes CEI and cru

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. CEI (CVV) and cru (CCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

3 ch
CEI
3 ch
cru

Look-alike desk: CEI vs cru

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: CEI is /se.ø.i/ while cru is /ˈkɾu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (abbrev vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44180, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

CEI is recorded at frequency rank #29,625, classified as anabbrev, pronounced /se.ø.i/. cru is at rank #14,555, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈkɾu/.

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 44180, this pair ranks #21,360 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of CEI vs cru

Shared letters: c. Private to "CEI": ei. Private to "cru": ru.

"CEI" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "cru" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "CEI" for "cru" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "CEI" is an abbrev and "cru" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "CEI" or "cru" show up more?
"cru" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,555 in our Portuguese list, against #29,625 for "CEI". 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 "CEI" and "cru" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "CEI" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cru" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #21,360 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "CEI" and "cru" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "CEI vs coin". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #21,360 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