curavscustaTell them apart

Which to use

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

#2,771
“cura” frequency rank
#2,470
“custa” frequency rank
5241
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cura custa
Definition ato ou efeito de curar despesa feita com alguma coisa

Where the eye mixes cura and custa

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
cura
5 ch
custa

Why the eye confuses cura with custa

A purely visual mix-up. cura (/ˈku.ɾɐ/) and custa (/ˈkuʃ.tɐ/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5241, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cura is recorded at frequency rank #2,771, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈku.ɾɐ/. custa is at rank #2,470, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkuʃ.tɐ/.

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 5241, this pair ranks #69,426 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cura vs custa

Shared letters: acu. Private to "cura": r. Private to "custa": st.

"cura" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "custa" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • curaccura · crua · cuar · curra · ucra
  • custaccusta · csuta · cusat · cussta · custta · cutsa · ucsta

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cura" for "custa" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈku.ɾɐ/ versus /ˈkuʃ.tɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "cura" or "custa" show up more?
"custa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,470 in our Portuguese list, against #2,771 for "cura". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cura" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "custa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #69,426 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cura" and "custa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cerda vs cura". 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 #69,426 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