cheirovscoveiroTell them apart

Which to use

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

#2,083
“cheiro” frequency rank
#39,544
“coveiro” frequency rank
41627
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cheiro coveiro
Definition odor, aroma indivíduo que abre as covas no cemitério e dá sepultura aos cadáveres

Where the eye mixes cheiro and coveiro

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. cheiro runs 6 letters (CCVVCV) against coveiro's 7 (CVCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
cheiro
7 ch
coveiro

Look-alike desk: cheiro vs coveiro

A purely visual mix-up. cheiro (/ˈʃɐj.ɾu/) and coveiro (/ko.ˈvej.ɾʊ/) 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 41627, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cheiro is recorded at frequency rank #2,083, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈʃɐj.ɾu/. coveiro is at rank #39,544, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ko.ˈvej.ɾʊ/.

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 41627, this pair ranks #24,264 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cheiro vs coveiro

Shared letters: ceior. Private to "cheiro": h. Private to "coveiro": v.

"cheiro" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV  ·  "coveiro" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cheiro ← ccheiro · cehiro · cheior · cheirro · cherio · chheiro · chiero · hceiro
  • coveiro ← ccoveiro · coeviro · coveior · coveirro · coverio · coviero · covveiro · cvoeiro

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cheiro" and "coveiro" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈʃɐj.ɾu/ versus /ko.ˈvej.ɾʊ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cheiro" or "coveiro" show up more?
"cheiro" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,083 in our Portuguese list, against #39,544 for "coveiro". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cheiro" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "coveiro" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #24,264 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cheiro" and "coveiro" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coqueiro vs coveiro". 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 #24,264 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