cookvscovaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#16,716
“cook” frequency rank
#10,164
“cova” frequency rank
26880
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cook cova
Definition cozinheiro, coque, cuca, mestre-cuco abertura na terra

Where the eye mixes cook and cova

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

4 ch
cook
4 ch
cova

Visual trap between cook and cova

A purely visual mix-up. cook (/ˈkʊk/) and cova (/ˈkɔ.vɐ/) 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 26880, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cook is recorded at frequency rank #16,716, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkʊk/. cova is at rank #10,164, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɔ.vɐ/.

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 26880, this pair ranks #42,189 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cook vs cova

Shared letters: co. Private to "cook": k. Private to "cova": av.

"cook" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "cova" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cookccook · cok · coko · cookk · ocok
  • covaccova · coav · covva · cvoa · ocva

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cook" and "cova" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈkʊk/ versus /ˈkɔ.vɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cook" or "cova"?
"cova" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,164 in our Portuguese list, against #16,716 for "cook". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "cook" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cova" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #42,189 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cook" and "cova" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coin vs cook". 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 #42,189 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