laca vs lavar, What's the Difference?

Which to use

“laca” is a noun and “lavar” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,502
“laca” frequency rank: #3,336
“lavar” frequency rank: 51838
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	laca	lavar
Definition	resina ou goma resinosa obtida de certas árvores no Oriente	limpar (algo) por ação de um líquido, especialmente água

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set laca and lavar apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

4 ch

laca

5 ch

lavar

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: laca is /ˈla.kɐ/ while lavar is /lɐ.ˈvaɾ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51838, 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/. lavar is at rank #3,336, tagged as averb, pronounced /lɐ.ˈvaɾ/.

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 51838, this pair ranks #13,269 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of laca vs lavar

Shared letters: al. Private to "laca": c. Private to "lavar": rv.

"laca" · 4 letters · shape CVCV · "lavar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

laca ← alca · laac · lacca · lcaa · llaca
lavar ← alvar · laavr · lavarr · lavvar · llavar · lvaar

Frequency comparison

laca#48,502

lavar#3,336

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "laca" and "lavar" be used interchangeably?

No - they are not even the same part of speech. "laca" is a noun and "lavar" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.

Which is more common, "laca" or "lavar"?

"lavar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,336 in our Portuguese list, against #48,502 for "laca". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Remembering laca vs lavar

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Check the role first: if you need a noun, it's “laca”; for a verb, it's “lavar”.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “laca” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable