Which to use
“cost” and “costas” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #22,928
- “cost” frequency rank
- #1,739
- “costas” frequency rank
- 24667
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cost | costas |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | custo | lado posterior do tórax humano |
Where the eye mixes cost and costas
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses cost with costas
A purely visual mix-up. cost (/ˈkɔst/) and costas (/ˈkɔʃtɜʃ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “cost” sits inside “costas”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24667, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cost is recorded at frequency rank #22,928, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɔst/. costas is at rank #1,739, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkɔʃtɜʃ/.
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 24667, this pair ranks #44,880 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cost vs costas
Shared letters: cost. Private to "cost": -. Private to "costas": a.
"cost" · 4 letters · shape CVCC · "costas" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cost" and "costas" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "cost" or "costas"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "cost" and "costas" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cost" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "costas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #44,880 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cost" and "costas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "copta vs cost". 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 #44,880 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.