cosavscuraWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#31,312
“cosa” frequency rank
#2,771
“cura” frequency rank
34083
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cosa cura
Definition coisa ato ou efeito de curar

Where the eye mixes cosa and cura

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. cosa and cura follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
cosa
4 ch
cura

Look-alike desk: cosa vs cura

A purely visual mix-up. cosa (/'kɔ.sa/) and cura (/ˈku.ɾɐ/) 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 34083, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cosa is recorded at frequency rank #31,312, classified as anoun, pronounced /'kɔ.sa/. cura is at rank #2,771, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈku.ɾɐ/.

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 34083, this pair ranks #33,279 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cosa vs cura

Shared letters: ac. Private to "cosa": os. Private to "cura": ru.

"cosa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cura" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cosa ← ccosa · cossa · csoa · ocsa
  • cura ← ccura · crua · cuar · curra · ucra

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cosa" and "cura" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/'kɔ.sa/ versus /ˈku.ɾɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cosa" or "cura" show up more?
"cura" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,771 in our Portuguese list, against #31,312 for "cosa". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cosa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cura" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #33,279 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cosa" and "cura" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "conca vs cosa". 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 #33,279 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