caspavscosaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#42,827
“caspa” frequency rank
#31,312
“cosa” frequency rank
74139
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caspa cosa
Definition doença cutânea caracterizada pela escamação excessiva de pele morta no couro cabeludo coisa

Where the eye mixes caspa and cosa

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

5 ch
caspa
4 ch
cosa

Visual trap between caspa and cosa

A purely visual mix-up. caspa (/ˈkas.pɐ/) 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74139, 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/. 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 74139, this pair ranks #2,603 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of caspa vs cosa

Shared letters: acs. Private to "caspa": p. Private to "cosa": o.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caspa ← acspa · capsa · casap · casppa · casspa · ccaspa · csapa
  • cosa ← ccosa · cossa · csoa · ocsa

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "caspa" and "cosa" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈkas.pɐ/ versus /'kɔ.sa/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "caspa" vs "cosa" - which ranks higher?
"cosa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,312 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

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "caspa" 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 #2,603 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caspa" and "cosa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "canja vs caspa". 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 #2,603 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