caspavscostaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#42,827
“caspa” frequency rank
#885
“costa” frequency rank
43712
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caspa costa
Definition doença cutânea caracterizada pela escamação excessiva de pele morta no couro cabeludo interface entre o mar e a terra

Where the eye mixes caspa and costa

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. caspa and costa follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
caspa
5 ch
costa

Look-alike desk: caspa vs costa

A purely visual mix-up. caspa (/ˈkas.pɐ/) and costa (/ˈkɔʃ.tɐ/) 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 43712, 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/. costa is at rank #885, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɔʃ.tɐ/.

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 43712, this pair ranks #21,910 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of caspa vs costa

Shared letters: acs. Private to "caspa": p. Private to "costa": ot.

"caspa" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "costa" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caspa ← acspa · capsa · casap · casppa · casspa · ccaspa · csapa
  • costa ← ccosta · cosat · cossta · costta · cotsa · csota · ocsta

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "caspa" and "costa" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈkas.pɐ/ versus /ˈkɔʃ.tɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "caspa" or "costa"?
"costa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #885 in our Portuguese list, against #42,827 for "caspa". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "caspa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "costa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #21,910 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caspa" and "costa" 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 #21,910 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