cepavscháTell them apart

Which to use

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

#40,036
“cepa” frequency rank
#2,711
“chá” frequency rank
42747
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cepa chá
Definition tronco de videira planta da família das Teáceas, originária do Extremo Oriente, cultivada por causa de suas folhas que contêm um alcalóide, a teína (cafeína do chá)

Where the eye mixes cepa and chá

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

4 ch
cepa
3 ch
chá

Why the eye confuses cepa with chá

A purely visual mix-up. cepa (/ˈse.pɐ/) and chá (/ˈʃa/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42747, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cepa is recorded at frequency rank #40,036, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈse.pɐ/. chá is at rank #2,711, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈʃa/.

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 42747, this pair ranks #22,996 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cepa vs chá

Shared letters: c. Private to "cepa": aep. Private to "chá": .

"cepa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "chá" · 3 letters · shape CCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cepaccepa · ceap · ceppa · cpea · ecpa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cepa" for "chá" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈse.pɐ/ versus /ˈʃa/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cepa" or "chá"?
"chá" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,711 in our Portuguese list, against #40,036 for "cepa". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cepa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chá" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #22,996 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cepa" and "chá" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cepa 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 #22,996 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