coitado vs cuidado, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“coitado” is an intj and “cuidado” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,604
“coitado” frequency rank: #1,142
“cuidado” frequency rank: 12746
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	coitado	cuidado
Definition	exprime piedade ou dó	meditado

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set coitado and cuidado apart are highlighted. They share 5 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

7 ch

coitado

7 ch

cuidado

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: coitado is /koi.tá.du/ while cuidado is /kuj.ˈda.du/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (intj vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12746, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coitado is recorded at frequency rank #11,604, classified as anintj, pronounced /koi.tá.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 12746, this pair ranks #59,745 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of coitado vs cuidado

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

"coitado" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCV · "cuidado" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

coitado ← ccoitado · ciotado · coiatdo · coitaddo · coitaod · coitdao · coittado · cotiado
cuidado ← ccuidado · ciudado · cudiado · cuiaddo · cuidaddo · cuidaod · cuiddado · cuiddao

Frequency comparison

coitado#11,604

cuidado#1,142

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "coitado" and "cuidado" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "coitado" is an intj and "cuidado" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "coitado" or "cuidado"?

"cuidado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,142 in our Portuguese list, against #11,604 for "coitado". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering coitado vs cuidado

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need an intj, it's “coitado”; for an adjective, it's “cuidado”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “coitado” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable