cosvscoxaTell them apart

Quick tell: cos is a pronoun, coxa is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cos” is a pronoun and “coxa” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#27,810
“cos” frequency rank
#12,410
“coxa” frequency rank
40220
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cos coxa
Definition qualquer coisa parte da perna, desde as virilhas até o joelho

Letter map: cos vs coxa

Shared letters muted; letters that set cos and coxa apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. cos runs 3 letters (CVC) against coxa's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
cos
4 ch
coxa

Grammar separator: cos vs coxa

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: cos is apronoun and coxaanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40220, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cos is recorded at frequency rank #27,810, classified as apron. coxa is at rank #12,410, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈko.ʃɐ/.

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 40220, this pair ranks #25,941 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cos vs coxa

Shared letters: co. Private to "cos": s. Private to "coxa": ax.

"cos" · 3 letters · shape CVC  ·  "coxa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coxa ← ccoxa · coax · coxxa · cxoa · ocxa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cos" for "coxa" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cos" is a pronoun and "coxa" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "cos" vs "coxa" - which ranks higher?
"coxa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,410 in our Portuguese list, against #27,810 for "cos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "cos" vs "coxa" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "coxa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #25,941 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cos" and "coxa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coin vs cos". 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 #25,941 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