contavscostConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#223
“conta” frequency rank
#22,928
“cost” frequency rank
23151
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature conta cost
Definition qualquer operação de aritmética custo

Where the eye mixes conta and cost

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

5 ch
conta
4 ch
cost

Look-alike desk: conta vs cost

A purely visual mix-up. conta (/ˈkõ.tɐ/) and cost (/ˈkɔst/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23151, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

conta is recorded at frequency rank #223, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkõ.tɐ/. cost is at rank #22,928, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɔst/.

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 23151, this pair ranks #46,728 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of conta vs cost

Shared letters: cot. Private to "conta": an. Private to "cost": s.

"conta" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "cost" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • contacconta · cnota · conat · connta · contta · cotna · ocnta
  • costccost · cosst · costt · cots · csot · ocst

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "conta" and "cost" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈkõ.tɐ/ versus /ˈkɔst/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "conta" or "cost"?
"conta" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #223 in our Portuguese list, against #22,928 for "cost". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "conta" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cost" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #46,728 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "conta" and "cost" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "copta vs cost". 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 #46,728 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