Which to use
“costume” and “costura” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #4,459
- “costume” frequency rank
- #11,842
- “costura” frequency rank
- 16301
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | costume | costura |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | hábito | ato ou efeito de coser |
Where the eye mixes costume and costura
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. costume and costura follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses costume with costura
A purely visual mix-up. costume (/kuʃ.ˈtu.mɨ/) and costura (/kuʃ.ˈtu.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 16301, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
costume is recorded at frequency rank #4,459, classified as anoun, pronounced /kuʃ.ˈtu.mɨ/. costura is at rank #11,842, tagged as anoun, pronounced /kuʃ.ˈtu.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 16301, this pair ranks #55,271 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of costume vs costura
Shared letters: costu. Private to "costume": em. Private to "costura": ar.
"costume" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV · "costura" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "costume" for "costura" ever safe?
Frequency check: "costume" vs "costura" - which ranks higher?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "costume" and "costura" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "costume" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "costura" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #55,271 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "costume" and "costura" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "costela vs costura". 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 #55,271 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.