citadovscuidadoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#4,796
“citado” frequency rank
#1,142
“cuidado” frequency rank
5938
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature citado cuidado
Definition que sofreu citação meditado

Where the eye mixes citado and cuidado

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

6 ch
citado
7 ch
cuidado

Visual trap between citado and cuidado

A purely visual mix-up. citado (/si.ˈta.du/) and cuidado (/kuj.ˈda.du/) 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 5938, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

citado is recorded at frequency rank #4,796, classified as anadj, pronounced /si.ˈta.du/. cuidado is at rank #1,142, tagged as anadj, pronounced /kuj.ˈda.du/.

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 5938, this pair ranks #68,607 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of citado vs cuidado

Shared letters: acdio. Private to "citado": t. Private to "cuidado": u.

"citado" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "cuidado" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • citado ← ccitado · ciatdo · citaddo · citaod · citdao · cittado · ctiado · ictado
  • cuidado ← ccuidado · ciudado · cudiado · cuiaddo · cuidaddo · cuidaod · cuiddado · cuiddao

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "citado" and "cuidado" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/si.ˈta.du/ versus /kuj.ˈda.du/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "citado" or "cuidado"?
"cuidado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,142 in our Portuguese list, against #4,796 for "citado". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "citado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cuidado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #68,607 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "citado" and "cuidado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ciao vs citado". 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 #68,607 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