cala

[ˈkala]

/[ˈkala]/ noun

By · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) ·

The verdict

“cala” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #15,794) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#15,794
frequency rank, Spanish
8,288
“C” headwords
4
tracked misspellings
20
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Pequeña porción de mar que se interna en la tierra.

Corpus desk

Index ES-cala · cala · Spanish

cala · rank #15,794 · 4 variants · 20 confusables

  • FREQ-MID #15,794
  • LEN-MID 4 letters
  • VOW-2 2 vowels
  • CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
  • VAR-LOW 4 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,288
  • PHOTO-FINISH burbujas

Nearest frequency peer: burbujas (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Vecinos de frecuencia del confusable “cala”

Pares de peso similar en el corpus, aparte de los confusables abajo

corpus weight

What this shows Las barras sitúan “cala” frente a los lemas españoles más cercanos por rango, no un reprint del escritorio de confusables.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

cala vs can
50% similar
cala vs cap
50% similar
cala vs col
50% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for cala
PropertyValue
Headwordcala
LanguageSpanish
Part of speechNoun
IPA[ˈkala]
Letters4
Frequency rank#15,794
Misspellings tracked4
Confusable pairs20
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rango de corpus junto a confusables de “cala”

Esta escala corre desde el núcleo del español cotidiano (izquierda) hasta el rastro de formas rara vez usadas (derecha).calacae aquí:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

La escala es logarítmica (cada marca ≈ 10× más rara). En la misma franja de rareza aparecen “burbujas” (#15,793), “capitanes” (#15,795), “bulto” (#15,792). Entre 8,288 lemas con “C”, “cala” va en #15,794. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for cala is neighbouring look-alikes ("can", "cap", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced [ˈkala]. Frequency #15,794 among 8,288 “C” headwords. Gloss: "Pequeña porción de mar que se interna en la tierra.".

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for cala, with forms such as "acla", "caal", and "ccala". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "can", "cap", "col", and more, a pairing that trips writers up because the two words share enough sound or shape to blur together.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct Spanish form is cala, spelled C-A-L-A.

Definition

  1. 1
    Pequeña porción de mar que se interna en la tierra.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how cala appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. , acerqué la piragua a la playa, la dejé en una calita que había bajo unos árboles y me dormí, pues estaba exhausto.

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

  • acla
  • caal
  • ccala
  • claa

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of cala - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.

acla2caal2ccala1claa2
Edit distance from "cala"

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 Spanish corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "cala"?
"cala" is spelled C-A-L-A. The IPA pronunciation is [ˈkala].
What does "cala" mean?
As a noun, "cala" means: Pequeña porción de mar que se interna en la tierra.
What words are commonly confused with "cala"?
"cala" is commonly confused with "can", "cap", "col". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.
How do you pronounce "cala"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "cala" is [ˈkala]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "cala" come from?
"cala" is a Spanish word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar Spanish words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "cala", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked Spanish headwords with 4 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

cash#15,796celo#15,801aras#15,775dona#15,838

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list