cintavscustaTell them apart

Which to use

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

#21,108
“cinta” frequency rank
#2,470
“custa” frequency rank
23578
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cinta custa
Definition faixa comprida de pano ou couro para apertar ou cingir despesa feita com alguma coisa

Where the eye mixes cinta and custa

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

5 ch
cinta
5 ch
custa

Visual trap between cinta and custa

A purely visual mix-up. cinta (/ˈsĩ.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 23578, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cinta is recorded at frequency rank #21,108, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsĩ.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 23578, this pair ranks #46,229 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cinta vs custa

Shared letters: act. Private to "cinta": in. Private to "custa": su.

"cinta" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "custa" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cintaccinta · cinat · cinnta · cintta · citna · cnita · icnta
  • custaccusta · csuta · cusat · cussta · custta · cutsa · ucsta

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cinta" and "custa" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈsĩ.tɐ/ versus /ˈkuʃ.tɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cinta" vs "custa" - which ranks higher?
"custa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,470 in our Portuguese list, against #21,108 for "cinta". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cinta" 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 #46,229 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cinta" and "custa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cinta vs conca". 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 #46,229 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