lacavslapaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#48,502
“laca” frequency rank
#9,071
“lapa” frequency rank
57573
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature laca lapa
Definition resina ou goma resinosa obtida de certas árvores no Oriente grande pedra ou laje que se sobressai de um rochedo, formando um refúgio

Where the eye mixes laca and lapa

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
laca
4 ch
lapa

Look-alike desk: laca vs lapa

A purely visual mix-up. laca (/ˈla.kɐ/) and lapa (/ˈla.pɐ/) 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 p in “lapa”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57573, 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/. lapa is at rank #9,071, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈla.pɐ/.

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 57573, this pair ranks #9,259 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of laca vs lapa

Shared letters: al. Private to "laca": c. Private to "lapa": p.

"laca" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lapa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lacaalca · laac · lacca · lcaa · llaca
  • lapaalpa · laap · lappa · llapa · lpaa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "laca" for "lapa" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈla.kɐ/ versus /ˈla.pɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "laca" vs "lapa" - which ranks higher?
"lapa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,071 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 "lapa" 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 "lapa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #9,259 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "laca" and "lapa" 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 #9,259 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