arcadavsarcadeWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#36,747
“arcada” frequency rank
#27,734
“arcade” frequency rank
64481
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature arcada arcade
Definition abóbada arqueada arcada

Where the eye mixes arcada and arcade

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
arcada
6 ch
arcade

Why the eye confuses arcada with arcade

A purely visual mix-up. arcada (/ɐɾ.ˈka.dɐ/) and arcade (/ɑrˈkeɪd/) 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 a single letter - a in “arcada” becomes e in “arcade”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64481, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

arcada is recorded at frequency rank #36,747, classified as anoun, pronounced /ɐɾ.ˈka.dɐ/. arcade is at rank #27,734, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ɑrˈkeɪd/.

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 64481, this pair ranks #5,760 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of arcada vs arcade

Shared letters: acdr. Private to "arcada": -. Private to "arcade": e.

"arcada" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "arcade" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • arcadaacrada · aracda · arcaad · arcadda · arccada · arcdaa · arrcada · racada
  • arcadeacrade · aracde · arcadde · arcaed · arccade · arcdae · arrcade · racade

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "arcada" for "arcade" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ɐɾ.ˈka.dɐ/ versus /ɑrˈkeɪd/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "arcada" or "arcade"?
"arcade" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #27,734 in our Portuguese list, against #36,747 for "arcada". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "arcada" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "arcade" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,760 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "arcada" and "arcade" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "arcada vs arraia". 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 #5,760 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