cucovscuraWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: cuco is a adjective, cura is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cuco” is an adjective and “cura” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30,486
“cuco” frequency rank
#2,771
“cura” frequency rank
33257
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cuco cura
Definition que tira partido de algo ou de uma pessoa, que é aproveitado, egoísta ato ou efeito de curar

Where the eye mixes cuco and cura

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
cuco
4 ch
cura

Visual trap between cuco and cura

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cuco is /'ku.kʊ/ while cura is /ˈku.ɾɐ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33257, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cuco is recorded at frequency rank #30,486, classified as anadj, pronounced /'ku.kʊ/. 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 33257, this pair ranks #34,291 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cuco vs cura

Shared letters: cu. Private to "cuco": o. Private to "cura": ar.

"cuco" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cura" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cucoccuco · ccuo · cucco · cuoc · ucco
  • curaccura · crua · cuar · curra · ucra

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cuco" and "cura" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cuco" is an adjective and "cura" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "cuco" vs "cura" - which ranks higher?
"cura" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,771 in our Portuguese list, against #30,486 for "cuco". 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 "cuco" 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 #34,291 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cuco" and "cura" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cúbico vs cuco". 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 #34,291 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