lacavslaiaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#48,502
“laca” frequency rank
#37,883
“laia” frequency rank
86385
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature laca laia
Definition resina ou goma resinosa obtida de certas árvores no Oriente lã

Where the eye mixes laca and laia

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. laca (CVCV) and laia (CVVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
laca
4 ch
laia

Look-alike desk: laca vs laia

A purely visual mix-up. laca (/ˈla.kɐ/) and laia (/ˈlaj.ɐ/) 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 a single letter - c in “laca” becomes i in “laia”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 86385, 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/. laia is at rank #37,883, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈlaj.ɐ/.

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 86385, this pair ranks #585 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of laca vs laia

Shared letters: al. Private to "laca": c. Private to "laia": i.

"laca" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "laia" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • laca ← alca · laac · lacca · lcaa · llaca
  • laia ← alia · laai · liaa · llaia

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "laca" and "laia" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈla.kɐ/ versus /ˈlaj.ɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "laca" or "laia"?
"laia" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,883 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

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "laca" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "laia" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #585 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "laca" and "laia" 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 #585 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