contravscortaWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: contra is a preposition, corta is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“contra” is a preposition and “corta” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#160
“contra” frequency rank
#4,545
“corta” frequency rank
4705
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature contra corta
Definition em oposição a ato de cortar

Letter map: contra vs corta

Shared letters muted; letters that set contra and corta apart highlighted. Shared run: 4.

6 ch
contra
5 ch
corta

Role in the sentence - contra and corta

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: contra is apreposition and cortaanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4705, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

contra is recorded at frequency rank #160, classified as aprep, pronounced /ˈkõ.tɾɐ/. corta is at rank #4,545, tagged as anoun.

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 4705, this pair ranks #70,110 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of contra vs corta

Shared letters: acort. Private to "contra": n. Private to "corta": -.

"contra" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV  ·  "corta" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • contraccontra · cnotra · conntra · conrta · contrra · conttra · cotnra · ocntra
  • cortaccorta · corat · corrta · cortta · cotra · crota · ocrta

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "contra" and "corta" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "contra" is a preposition and "corta" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "contra" or "corta"?
"contra" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #160 in our Portuguese list, against #4,545 for "corta". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

You've compared "contra" and "corta". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "contra" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "corta" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #70,110 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "contra" and "corta" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cerda vs corta". 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 #70,110 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