coinvscopaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#41,891
“coin” frequency rank
#596
“copa” frequency rank
42487
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coin copa
Definition plural de cù vaso fundo, de dimensões e formas variáveis, para bebidas; taça

Where the eye mixes coin and copa

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

4 ch
coin
4 ch
copa

Look-alike desk: coin vs copa

A purely visual mix-up. coin (/konʲ/) and copa (/ˈkɔ.pɐ/) 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 42487, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coin is recorded at frequency rank #41,891, classified as anoun, pronounced /konʲ/. copa is at rank #596, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɔ.pɐ/.

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 42487, this pair ranks #23,292 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of coin vs copa

Shared letters: co. Private to "coin": in. Private to "copa": ap.

"coin" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "copa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coinccoin · cion · coinn · coni · ocin
  • copaccopa · coap · coppa · cpoa · ocpa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "coin" for "copa" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/konʲ/ versus /ˈkɔ.pɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "coin" or "copa" show up more?
"copa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #596 in our Portuguese list, against #41,891 for "coin". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "coin" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "copa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #23,292 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coin" and "copa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coice vs coin". 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 #23,292 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