Which to use
“barca” and “burra” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #14,525
- “barca” frequency rank
- #12,384
- “burra” frequency rank
- 26909
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | barca | burra |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | embarcação larga e pouco funda | engenho para tirar água de um poço |
Where the eye mixes barca and burra
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.
Visual trap between barca and burra
A purely visual mix-up. barca (/ˈbaɾ.kɐ/) and burra (/ˈbu.xɐ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26909, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
barca is recorded at frequency rank #14,525, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈbaɾ.kɐ/. burra is at rank #12,384, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈbu.xɐ/.
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 26909, this pair ranks #42,150 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of barca vs burra
Shared letters: abr. Private to "barca": c. Private to "burra": u.
"barca" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "burra" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "barca" for "burra" ever safe?
Frequency check: "barca" vs "burra" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "barca" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "burra" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #42,150 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "barca" and "burra" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "barca vs bazuca". 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 #42,150 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.