cimavscoxaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#580
“cima” frequency rank
#12,410
“coxa” frequency rank
12990
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cima coxa
Definition a parte superior de alguma coisa; alto, cume, cimeira, topo parte da perna, desde as virilhas até o joelho

Where the eye mixes cima and coxa

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
cima
4 ch
coxa

Look-alike desk: cima vs coxa

A purely visual mix-up. cima (/ˈsi.mɐ/) 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 12990, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cima is recorded at frequency rank #580, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsi.mɐ/. 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 12990, this pair ranks #59,451 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cima vs coxa

Shared letters: ac. Private to "cima": im. Private to "coxa": ox.

"cima" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "coxa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cimaccima · ciam · cimma · cmia · icma
  • coxaccoxa · coax · coxxa · cxoa · ocxa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cima" for "coxa" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈsi.mɐ/ versus /ˈko.ʃɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cima" or "coxa" show up more?
"cima" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #580 in our Portuguese list, against #12,410 for "coxa". 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 "cima" 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 #59,451 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cima" and "coxa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "conca vs coxa". 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 #59,451 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