facavsfocoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#4,903
“faca” frequency rank
#1,491
“foco” frequency rank
6394
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature faca foco
Definition qualquer objeto cortante capaz de ser empunhado nitidez de uma imagem

Where the eye mixes faca and foco

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

4 ch
faca
4 ch
foco

Why the eye confuses faca with foco

A purely visual mix-up. faca (/ˈfa.kɐ/) and foco (/ˈfɔ.ko/) 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 6394, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

faca is recorded at frequency rank #4,903, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈfa.kɐ/. foco is at rank #1,491, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈfɔ.ko/.

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 6394, this pair ranks #68,045 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of faca vs foco

Shared letters: cf. Private to "faca": a. Private to "foco": o.

"faca" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "foco" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • facaafca · faac · facca · fcaa · ffaca
  • focofcoo · ffoco · focco · fooc · ofco

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "faca" for "foco" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈfa.kɐ/ versus /ˈfɔ.ko/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "faca" or "foco" show up more?
"foco" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,491 in our Portuguese list, against #4,903 for "faca". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "faca" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "foco" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #68,045 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "faca" and "foco" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "faca vs fogaça". 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 #68,045 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