cortiçavscortiçoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#35,519
“cortiça” frequency rank
#41,920
“cortiço” frequency rank
77439
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cortiça cortiço
Definition material de que é composta a casca de sobreiro colmeia feita num cilindro de cortiça, ou casca de árvore

Letter map: cortiça vs cortiço

Shared letters muted; letters that set cortiça and cortiço apart highlighted. Shared run: 6. cortiça and cortiço follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
cortiça
7 ch
cortiço

Spelling & dictionary notes on cortiça vs cortiço

cortiça and cortiço are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by a single letter - a in “cortiça” becomes o in “cortiço”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77439, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cortiça is recorded at frequency rank #35,519, classified as anoun, pronounced /kuɾ.ˈti.sɐ/. cortiço is at rank #41,920, 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 77439, this pair ranks #1,881 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cortiça vs cortiço

Shared letters: ciortç. Private to "cortiça": a. Private to "cortiço": -.

"cortiça" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "cortiço" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cortiça" and "cortiço" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They differ by a single letter - a in “cortiça” becomes o in “cortiço”, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "cortiça" or "cortiço"?
"cortiça" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,519 in our Portuguese list, against #41,920 for "cortiço". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "cortiça" and "cortiço".

  • Full dictionary entry for "cortiça" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cortiço" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,881 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cortiça" and "cortiço" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cólica vs cortiça". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #1,881 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