ciladavscriadaConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#16,704
“cilada” frequency rank
#1,566
“criada” frequency rank
18270
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cilada criada
Definition emboscada feita para ataque ou captura, de modo a atrair a pessoa até ela feminino de criado.

Where the eye mixes cilada and criada

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. cilada (CVCVCV) and criada (CCVVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
cilada
6 ch
criada

Visual trap between cilada and criada

A purely visual mix-up. cilada (/siˈla.dɐ/) and criada (/kɾi.ˈa.dɐ/) 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 18270, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cilada is recorded at frequency rank #16,704, classified as anoun, pronounced /siˈla.dɐ/. criada is at rank #1,566, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kɾi.ˈa.dɐ/.

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 18270, this pair ranks #52,765 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cilada vs criada

Shared letters: acdi. Private to "cilada": l. Private to "criada": r.

"cilada" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "criada" · 6 letters · shape CCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cilada ← ccilada · cialda · cilaad · ciladda · cildaa · cillada · cliada · iclada
  • criada ← ccriada · cirada · craida · criaad · criadda · cridaa · crriada · rciada

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cilada" for "criada" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/siˈla.dɐ/ versus /kɾi.ˈa.dɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cilada" vs "criada" - which ranks higher?
"criada" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,566 in our Portuguese list, against #16,704 for "cilada". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cilada" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "criada" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #52,765 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cilada" and "criada" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cilada vs ciranda". 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 #52,765 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