focavsfodãoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#8,772
“foca” frequency rank
#37,813
“fodão” frequency rank
46585
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature foca fodão
Definition forma atenuada de, e o mesmo que foda diz-se de quem fode muito

Where the eye mixes foca and fodão

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. foca runs 4 letters (CVCV) against fodão's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
foca
5 ch
fodão

Look-alike desk: foca vs fodão

A purely visual mix-up. foca (/ˈfɔ.kɐ/) and fodão (/fo.'doŋ/) 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 46585, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

foca is recorded at frequency rank #8,772, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈfɔ.kɐ/. fodão is at rank #37,813, tagged as anadj, pronounced /fo.'doŋ/.

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 46585, this pair ranks #18,711 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of foca vs fodão

Shared letters: fo. Private to "foca": ac. Private to "fodão": dã.

"foca" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "fodão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • foca ← fcoa · ffoca · foac · focca · ofca

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "foca" and "fodão" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈfɔ.kɐ/ versus /fo.'doŋ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "foca" vs "fodão" - which ranks higher?
"foca" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,772 in our Portuguese list, against #37,813 for "fodão". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "foca" and "fodão" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "foca" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "fodão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #18,711 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "foca" and "fodão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "filão vs fodão". 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 #18,711 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