casevscosaTell them apart

Which to use

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

#6,149
“case” frequency rank
#31,312
“cosa” frequency rank
37461
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature case cosa
Definition caso coisa

Where the eye mixes case and cosa

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
case
4 ch
cosa

Why the eye confuses case with cosa

A purely visual mix-up. case (/keɪs/) and cosa (/'kɔ.sa/) 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 37461, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

case is recorded at frequency rank #6,149, classified as anoun, pronounced /keɪs/. cosa is at rank #31,312, tagged as anoun, pronounced /'kɔ.sa/.

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 37461, this pair ranks #29,150 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of case vs cosa

Shared letters: acs. Private to "case": e. Private to "cosa": o.

"case" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cosa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caseacse · caes · casse · ccase · csae
  • cosaccosa · cossa · csoa · ocsa

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "case" and "cosa" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/keɪs/ versus /'kɔ.sa/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "case" or "cosa"?
"case" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,149 in our Portuguese list, against #31,312 for "cosa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "case" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cosa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #29,150 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "case" and "cosa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "conca vs cosa". 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 #29,150 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