Which to use
“laca” and “lava” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #48,502
- “laca” frequency rank
- #3,702
- “lava” frequency rank
- 52204
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | laca | lava |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | resina ou goma resinosa obtida de certas árvores no Oriente | designação dada ao material geológico em fusão, com temperatura em geral entre os 600 °C e os 1 250 °C, que um vulcão expele durante uma erupção |
Where the eye mixes laca and lava
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. laca and lava follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between laca and lava
A purely visual mix-up. laca (/ˈla.kɐ/) and lava (/ˈla.vɐ/) 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 v in “lava”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52204, 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/. lava is at rank #3,702, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈla.vɐ/.
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 52204, this pair ranks #12,945 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of laca vs lava
Shared letters: al. Private to "laca": c. Private to "lava": v.
"laca" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "lava" · 4 letters · shape CVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "laca" for "lava" ever safe?
Frequency check: "laca" vs "lava" - which ranks higher?
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 "lava" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #12,945 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "laca" and "lava" 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 #12,945 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.