lacavslacunaTell them apart

Which to use

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

#48,502
“laca” frequency rank
#15,606
“lacuna” frequency rank
64108
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature laca lacuna
Definition resina ou goma resinosa obtida de certas árvores no Oriente falha, falta, vazio, omissão, hiato

Where the eye mixes laca and lacuna

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
laca
6 ch
lacuna

Look-alike desk: laca vs lacuna

A purely visual mix-up. laca (/ˈla.kɐ/) and lacuna (/lɐ.ˈku.nɐ/) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64108, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

laca is recorded at frequency rank #48,502, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈla.kɐ/. lacuna is at rank #15,606, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lɐ.ˈku.nɐ/.

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 64108, this pair ranks #5,910 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of laca vs lacuna

Shared letters: acl. Private to "laca": -. Private to "lacuna": nu.

"laca" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lacuna" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lacaalca · laac · lacca · lcaa · llaca
  • lacunaalcuna · laccuna · lacnua · lacuan · lacunna · laucna · lcauna · llacuna

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "laca" and "lacuna" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈla.kɐ/ versus /lɐ.ˈku.nɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "laca" or "lacuna"?
"lacuna" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,606 in our Portuguese list, against #48,502 for "laca". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "laca" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lacuna" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,910 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "laca" and "lacuna" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laca vs loch". 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 #5,910 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