chitavscustaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#33,329
“chita” frequency rank
#2,470
“custa” frequency rank
35799
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chita custa
Definition tecido de algodão de pouco valor, ralo e geralmente estampado com cores vivas despesa feita com alguma coisa

Where the eye mixes chita and custa

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

5 ch
chita
5 ch
custa

Why the eye confuses chita with custa

A purely visual mix-up. chita (/ˈʃi.tɐ/) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35799, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chita is recorded at frequency rank #33,329, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈʃi.tɐ/. 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 35799, this pair ranks #31,172 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of chita vs custa

Shared letters: act. Private to "chita": hi. Private to "custa": su.

"chita" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "custa" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chitacchita · chhita · chiat · chitta · chtia · cihta · hcita
  • custaccusta · csuta · cusat · cussta · custta · cutsa · ucsta

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "chita" and "custa" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈʃi.tɐ/ versus /ˈkuʃ.tɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "chita" or "custa" show up more?
"custa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,470 in our Portuguese list, against #33,329 for "chita". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "chita" 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 #31,172 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chita" and "custa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chita vs copta". 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 #31,172 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