coffeevscofreConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#18,535
“coffee” frequency rank
#13,689
“cofre” frequency rank
32224
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coffee cofre
Definition café local onde se guardam dinheiro e objetos de valor

Where the eye mixes coffee and cofre

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. coffee runs 6 letters (CVCCVV) against cofre's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
coffee
5 ch
cofre

Visual trap between coffee and cofre

A purely visual mix-up. coffee (/ˈkafeɪ, ˈkafi/) and cofre (/ˈkɔ.fɾɨ/) 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 32224, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coffee is recorded at frequency rank #18,535, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkafeɪ, ˈkafi/. cofre is at rank #13,689, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɔ.fɾɨ/.

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 32224, this pair ranks #35,644 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of coffee vs cofre

Shared letters: cefo. Private to "coffee": -. Private to "cofre": r.

"coffee" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "cofre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coffee ← ccoffee · cfofee · cofee · cofefe · coffe · ocffee
  • cofre ← ccofre · cfore · cofer · coffre · cofrre · corfe · ocfre

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "coffee" and "cofre" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈkafeɪ, ˈkafi/ versus /ˈkɔ.fɾɨ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "coffee" or "cofre" show up more?
"cofre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,689 in our Portuguese list, against #18,535 for "coffee". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "coffee" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cofre" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #35,644 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coffee" and "cofre" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cofre vs contre". 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 #35,644 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