ceravscosaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#10,145
“cera” frequency rank
#31,312
“cosa” frequency rank
41457
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cera cosa
Definition substância que constitui os favos das abelhas coisa

Where the eye mixes cera and cosa

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

4 ch
cera
4 ch
cosa

Look-alike desk: cera vs cosa

A purely visual mix-up. cera (/ˈse.ɾɐ/) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41457, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cera is recorded at frequency rank #10,145, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈse.ɾɐ/. 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 41457, this pair ranks #24,460 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cera vs cosa

Shared letters: ac. Private to "cera": er. Private to "cosa": os.

"cera" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cosa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cera ← ccera · cear · cerra · crea · ecra
  • cosa ← ccosa · cossa · csoa · ocsa

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cera" and "cosa" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈse.ɾɐ/ versus /'kɔ.sa/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cera" or "cosa"?
"cera" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,145 in our Portuguese list, against #31,312 for "cosa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cera" 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 #24,460 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cera" and "cosa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "conca vs cosa". 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 #24,460 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