cepavscoxaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#40,036
“cepa” frequency rank
#12,410
“coxa” frequency rank
52446
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cepa coxa
Definition tronco de videira parte da perna, desde as virilhas até o joelho

Where the eye mixes cepa and coxa

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. cepa and coxa follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
cepa
4 ch
coxa

Why the eye confuses cepa with coxa

A purely visual mix-up. cepa (/ˈse.pɐ/) and coxa (/ˈko.ʃɐ/) 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 52446, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cepa is recorded at frequency rank #40,036, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈse.pɐ/. coxa is at rank #12,410, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈko.ʃɐ/.

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 52446, this pair ranks #12,757 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cepa vs coxa

Shared letters: ac. Private to "cepa": ep. Private to "coxa": ox.

"cepa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "coxa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cepa ← ccepa · ceap · ceppa · cpea · ecpa
  • coxa ← ccoxa · coax · coxxa · cxoa · ocxa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cepa" for "coxa" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈse.pɐ/ versus /ˈko.ʃɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cepa" vs "coxa" - which ranks higher?
"coxa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,410 in our Portuguese list, against #40,036 for "cepa". 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 "cepa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "coxa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #12,757 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cepa" and "coxa" 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 #12,757 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