cevadavscriadaTell them apart

Which to use

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

#28,498
“cevada” frequency rank
#1,566
“criada” frequency rank
30064
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cevada criada
Definition planta (Hordeum vulgare) da família das gramíneas, cultivada como cereal feminino de criado.

Where the eye mixes cevada and criada

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cevada (CVCVCV) and criada (CCVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
cevada
6 ch
criada

Visual trap between cevada and criada

A purely visual mix-up. cevada (/sɨ.ˈva.dɐ/) and criada (/kɾi.ˈa.dɐ/) 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 30064, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cevada is recorded at frequency rank #28,498, classified as anoun, pronounced /sɨ.ˈva.dɐ/. criada is at rank #1,566, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɾi.ˈa.dɐ/.

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 30064, this pair ranks #38,391 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cevada vs criada

Shared letters: acd. Private to "cevada": ev. Private to "criada": ir.

"cevada" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "criada" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cevada ← ccevada · ceavda · cevaad · cevadda · cevdaa · cevvada · cveada · ecvada
  • criada ← ccriada · cirada · craida · criaad · criadda · cridaa · crriada · rciada

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cevada" and "criada" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/sɨ.ˈva.dɐ/ versus /kɾi.ˈa.dɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cevada" vs "criada" - which ranks higher?
"criada" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,566 in our Portuguese list, against #28,498 for "cevada". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cevada" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "criada" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #38,391 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cevada" and "criada" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cerda vs cevada". 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 #38,391 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