ceiavscellConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#14,796
“ceia” frequency rank
#13,678
“cell” frequency rank
28474
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ceia cell
Definition a última refeição do dia célula

Where the eye mixes ceia and cell

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
ceia
4 ch
cell

Visual trap between ceia and cell

A purely visual mix-up. ceia (/ˈsɐj.ɐ/) and cell (/sɛl/) 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 28474, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ceia is recorded at frequency rank #14,796, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsɐj.ɐ/. cell is at rank #13,678, tagged as anoun, pronounced /sɛl/.

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 28474, this pair ranks #40,334 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ceia vs cell

Shared letters: ce. Private to "ceia": ai. Private to "cell": l.

"ceia" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "cell" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ceiacceia · ceai · ciea · ecia
  • cellccell · cel · clel · ecll

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ceia" for "cell" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈsɐj.ɐ/ versus /sɛl/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "ceia" vs "cell" - which ranks higher?
"cell" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,678 in our Portuguese list, against #14,796 for "ceia". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ceia" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cell" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #40,334 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ceia" and "cell" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ceia vs cerda". 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 #40,334 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