caspavscepaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#42,827
“caspa” frequency rank
#40,036
“cepa” frequency rank
82863
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caspa cepa
Definition doença cutânea caracterizada pela escamação excessiva de pele morta no couro cabeludo tronco de videira

Where the eye mixes caspa and cepa

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. caspa runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against cepa's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
caspa
4 ch
cepa

Look-alike desk: caspa vs cepa

A purely visual mix-up. caspa (/ˈkas.pɐ/) and cepa (/ˈse.pɐ/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82863, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

caspa is recorded at frequency rank #42,827, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkas.pɐ/. cepa is at rank #40,036, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈse.pɐ/.

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 82863, this pair ranks #974 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of caspa vs cepa

Shared letters: acp. Private to "caspa": s. Private to "cepa": e.

"caspa" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "cepa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caspa ← acspa · capsa · casap · casppa · casspa · ccaspa · csapa
  • cepa ← ccepa · ceap · ceppa · cpea · ecpa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "caspa" for "cepa" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈkas.pɐ/ versus /ˈse.pɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "caspa" vs "cepa" - which ranks higher?
"cepa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40,036 in our Portuguese list, against #42,827 for "caspa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "caspa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cepa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #974 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caspa" and "cepa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cepa vs cerda". 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 #974 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