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cerca

Portuguese, noun

cerca is spelled C-E-R-C-A (5 letters) and appears 251 times per million words in written Portuguese, the 363rd most frequent Portuguese word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Cerca is a Portuguese feminine noun meaning “fence (thin barrier that separates two pieces of land)” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a third-person singular present indicative of cercar. With an accent, cêrca is a different word: “pre-reform spelling (used until 1971 in Brazil and 1945 in Portugal)…”. The Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) defines it as “construção feita de materiais diversos (usualmente madeira ou ferro) que serve para cercar uma área”.

What does cerca mean in English?

noun

  1. 1

    femininefence (thin barrier that separates two pieces of land)

  2. 2

    femininewall (structure built for defense surrounding a city)

adverb

  1. 1

    only used in cerca de

verb

  1. 1

    third-person singular present indicative

  2. 2

    second-person singular imperative

noun

as cêrca
  1. 1

    femininepre-reform spelling (used until 1971 in Brazil and 1945 in Portugal) of cerca

adverb

as cêrca
  1. 1

    pre-reform spelling (used until 1971 in Brazil and 1945 in Portugal) of cerca

Source: English Wiktionary, Portuguese section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).

How Portuguese dictionaries define it

adverb: 1. perto, nas proximidades, na cercania

noun: 1. construção feita de materiais diversos (usualmente madeira ou ferro) que serve para cercar uma área

The definition in the Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário), in Portuguese.

Source: Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.

Forms of cerca

  • cercas plural
  • cêrca alternative
  • cêrcas plural

Source: English Wiktionary and Portuguese Wiktionary (Wikcionário) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).

English words that translate to cerca

Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.

How common is cerca in Portuguese?

cerca appears 251 times per million words in written Portuguese.

Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).

What to look up after cerca