cheiavschessConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#1,770
“cheia” frequency rank
#49,866
“chess” frequency rank
51636
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cheia chess
Definition inundação xadrez

Where the eye mixes cheia and chess

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cheia (CCVVV) and chess (CCVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
cheia
5 ch
chess

Why the eye confuses cheia with chess

A purely visual mix-up. cheia (/ˈʃɐj.ɐ/) and chess (/ˈtʃɛs/) 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 51636, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cheia is recorded at frequency rank #1,770, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈʃɐj.ɐ/. chess is at rank #49,866, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈtʃɛs/.

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 51636, this pair ranks #13,446 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cheia vs chess

Shared letters: ceh. Private to "cheia": ai. Private to "chess": s.

"cheia" · 5 letters · shape CCVVV  ·  "chess" · 5 letters · shape CCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cheia ← ccheia · cehia · cheai · chheia · chiea · hceia
  • chess ← cchess · cehss · ches · chhess · chses · hcess

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cheia" and "chess" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈʃɐj.ɐ/ versus /ˈtʃɛs/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cheia" or "chess"?
"cheia" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,770 in our Portuguese list, against #49,866 for "chess". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cheia" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "chess" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #13,446 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cheia" and "chess" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chassi vs chess". 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 #13,446 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