chávenavschilenaTell them apart

Quick tell: chávena is a noun, chilena is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“chávena” is a noun and “chilena” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,750
“chávena” frequency rank
#13,240
“chilena” frequency rank
58990
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chávena chilena
Definition taça pequena, com asa, onde se servem bebidas quentes, principalmente café e chá feminino singular de chileno

Where the eye mixes chávena and chilena

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. chávena and chilena follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
chávena
7 ch
chilena

Why the eye confuses chávena with chilena

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: chávena is /ˈʃa.vɨ.nɐ/ while chilena is /ʃi'le.nas/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58990, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chávena is recorded at frequency rank #45,750, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈʃa.vɨ.nɐ/. chilena is at rank #13,240, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ʃi'le.nas/.

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 58990, this pair ranks #8,434 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of chávena vs chilena

Shared letters: acehn. Private to "chávena": vá. Private to "chilena": il.

"chávena" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV  ·  "chilena" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chilena ← cchilena · chhilena · chielna · chilean · chilenna · chillena · chilnea · chliena

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "chávena" and "chilena" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "chávena" is a noun and "chilena" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "chávena" or "chilena"?
"chilena" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,240 in our Portuguese list, against #45,750 for "chávena". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "chávena" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chilena" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #8,434 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chávena" and "chilena" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chacina vs chávena". 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 #8,434 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