chaleiravscoleiraWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#40,039
“chaleira” frequency rank
#18,537
“coleira” frequency rank
58576
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chaleira coleira
Definition vaso metálico ou cerâmico, por vezes elétrico, onde se aquece ou ferve água nas antigas armaduras, resguardo de couro, ou de outro material, para o pescoço

Where the eye mixes chaleira and coleira

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. chaleira runs 8 letters (CCVCVVCV) against coleira's 7 (CVCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
chaleira
7 ch
coleira

Visual trap between chaleira and coleira

A purely visual mix-up. chaleira (/ʃɐ.ˈlɐj.ɾɐ/) and coleira (/ku.ˈlɐj.ɾɐ/) 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 58576, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chaleira is recorded at frequency rank #40,039, classified as anoun, pronounced /ʃɐ.ˈlɐj.ɾɐ/. coleira is at rank #18,537, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ku.ˈlɐj.ɾɐ/.

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 58576, this pair ranks #8,673 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of chaleira vs coleira

Shared letters: aceilr. Private to "chaleira": h. Private to "coleira": o.

"chaleira" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVVCV  ·  "coleira" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chaleiracahleira · cchaleira · chaelira · chaleiar · chaleirra · chaleria · chaliera · challeira
  • coleiraccoleira · cloeira · coelira · coleiar · coleirra · coleria · coliera · colleira

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "chaleira" and "coleira" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ʃɐ.ˈlɐj.ɾɐ/ versus /ku.ˈlɐj.ɾɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "chaleira" or "coleira" show up more?
"coleira" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,537 in our Portuguese list, against #40,039 for "chaleira". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chaleira" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "coleira" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #8,673 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chaleira" and "coleira" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chaleira vs clareira". 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 #8,673 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