chervscolherWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: cher is a adjective, colher is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#22,560
“cher” frequency rank
#6,516
“colher” frequency rank
29076
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cher colher
Definition querido, adorado: utensílio formado por um cabo e uma parte côncava ou concha

Letter map: cher vs colher

Shared letters muted; letters that set cher and colher apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

4 ch
cher
6 ch
colher

Role in the sentence - cher and colher

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: cher is anadjective and colheranoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29076, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cher is recorded at frequency rank #22,560, classified as anadj, pronounced /ʃɛʁ/. colher is at rank #6,516, tagged as anoun.

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 29076, this pair ranks #39,640 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cher vs colher

Shared letters: cehr. Private to "cher": -. Private to "colher": lo.

"cher" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "colher" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cherccher · cehr · cherr · chher · chre · hcer
  • colherccolher · cloher · cohler · colehr · colherr · colhher · colhre · collher

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cher" and "colher" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cher" is an adjective and "colher" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "cher" or "colher"?
"colher" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,516 in our Portuguese list, against #22,560 for "cher". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "cher" vs "colher" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cher" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "colher" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #39,640 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cher" and "colher" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cher 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 #39,640 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