chãovschatWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,140
“chão” frequency rank
#6,996
“chat” frequency rank
8136
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chão chat
Definition corda gato

Letter map: chão vs chat

Shared letters muted; letters that set chão and chat apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
chão
4 ch
chat

Corpus notes: chão and chat

chão and chat are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 8136, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chão is recorded at frequency rank #1,140, classified as anoun. chat is at rank #6,996, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ʃa/.

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 8136, this pair ranks #65,755 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of chão vs chat

Shared letters: ch. Private to "chão": . Private to "chat": at.

"chão" · 4 letters · shape CCVV  ·  "chat" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chatcaht · cchat · chatt · chhat · chta · hcat

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "chão" for "chat" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "chão" or "chat" show up more?
"chão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,140 in our Portuguese list, against #6,996 for "chat". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "chão" and "chat".

  • Full dictionary entry for "chão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chat" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #65,755 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chão" and "chat" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chat vs chau". 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 #65,755 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