coldvscosaConfusable pair

Quick tell: cold is a adjective, cosa is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cold” is an adjective and “cosa” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,538
“cold” frequency rank
#31,312
“cosa” frequency rank
45850
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cold cosa
Definition frio coisa

Where the eye mixes cold and cosa

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

4 ch
cold
4 ch
cosa

Look-alike desk: cold vs cosa

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cold is /koʊld/ while cosa is /'kɔ.sa/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45850, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cold is recorded at frequency rank #14,538, classified as anadj, pronounced /koʊld/. 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 45850, this pair ranks #19,534 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cold vs cosa

Shared letters: co. Private to "cold": dl. Private to "cosa": as.

"cold" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "cosa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coldccold · clod · codl · coldd · colld · ocld
  • cosaccosa · cossa · csoa · ocsa

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cold" and "cosa" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cold" is an adjective and "cosa" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "cold" vs "cosa" - which ranks higher?
"cold" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,538 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

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cold" 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 #19,534 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cold" 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 #19,534 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