escadavsescolaConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#5,626
“escada” frequency rank
#275
“escola” frequency rank
5901
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature escada escola
Definition equipamento formado por degraus que é usado para subir e descer de lugares altos instituição social que tem a missão de educar

Where the eye mixes escada and escola

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. escada and escola follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
escada
6 ch
escola

Visual trap between escada and escola

A purely visual mix-up. escada (/isˈka.dɐ/, /esˈka.dɐ/) and escola (/is.ˈkɔ.la/) 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 5901, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

escada is recorded at frequency rank #5,626, classified as anoun, pronounced /isˈka.dɐ/, /esˈka.dɐ/. escola is at rank #275, tagged as anoun, pronounced /is.ˈkɔ.la/.

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 5901, this pair ranks #68,647 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of escada vs escola

Shared letters: aces. Private to "escada": d. Private to "escola": lo.

"escada" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "escola" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • escada ← ecsada · esacda · escaad · escadda · esccada · escdaa · esscada · secada
  • escola ← ecsola · esccola · escloa · escoal · escolla · esocla · esscola · secola

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "escada" and "escola" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/isˈka.dɐ/, /esˈka.dɐ/ versus /is.ˈkɔ.la/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "escada" vs "escola" - which ranks higher?
"escola" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #275 in our Portuguese list, against #5,626 for "escada". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "escada" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "escola" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #68,647 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "escada" and "escola" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "enxada vs escada". 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 #68,647 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