celtavscélulaWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: celta is a adjective, célula is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“celta” is an adjective and “célula” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#21,959
“celta” frequency rank
#8,030
“célula” frequency rank
29989
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature celta célula
Definition relativo a celta (substantivo de dois gêneros) ou aos celtas unidade estrutural básica da constituição dos seres vivos, excetos dos vírus

Where the eye mixes celta and célula

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. celta runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against célula's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
celta
6 ch
célula

Look-alike desk: celta vs célula

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: celta is /ˈsɛɫ.tɐ/ while célula is /ˈsɛ.lu.lə/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29989, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

celta is recorded at frequency rank #21,959, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈsɛɫ.tɐ/. célula is at rank #8,030, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsɛ.lu.lə/.

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 29989, this pair ranks #38,494 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of celta vs célula

Shared letters: acl. Private to "celta": et. Private to "célula": ué.

"celta" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "célula" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • celta ← ccelta · celat · cellta · celtta · cetla · cleta · eclta

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "celta" and "célula" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "celta" is an adjective and "célula" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "celta" vs "célula" - which ranks higher?
"célula" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,030 in our Portuguese list, against #21,959 for "celta". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "celta" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "célula" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #38,494 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "celta" and "célula" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "celta 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 #38,494 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