castvscustaTell them apart

Which to use

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

#17,723
“cast” frequency rank
#2,470
“custa” frequency rank
20193
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cast custa
Definition arremesso despesa feita com alguma coisa

Where the eye mixes cast and custa

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
cast
5 ch
custa

Why the eye confuses cast with custa

A purely visual mix-up. cast (/kæst/) and custa (/ˈkuʃ.tɐ/) 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 20193, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cast is recorded at frequency rank #17,723, classified as anoun, pronounced /kæst/. custa is at rank #2,470, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkuʃ.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 20193, this pair ranks #50,377 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cast vs custa

Shared letters: acst. Private to "cast": -. Private to "custa": u.

"cast" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "custa" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • castacst · casst · castt · ccast · csat
  • custaccusta · csuta · cusat · cussta · custta · cutsa · ucsta

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cast" and "custa" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/kæst/ versus /ˈkuʃ.tɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cast" vs "custa" - which ranks higher?
"custa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,470 in our Portuguese list, against #17,723 for "cast". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cast" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "custa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #50,377 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cast" and "custa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caspa vs cast". 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 #50,377 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