lacavslockWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#48,502
“laca” frequency rank
#22,711
“lock” frequency rank
71213
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature laca lock
Definition resina ou goma resinosa obtida de certas árvores no Oriente fechadura

Where the eye mixes laca and lock

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. laca (CVCV) and lock (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
laca
4 ch
lock

Visual trap between laca and lock

A purely visual mix-up. laca (/ˈla.kɐ/) and lock (/lɒk/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 71213, 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/. lock is at rank #22,711, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lɒk/.

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 71213, this pair ranks #3,413 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of laca vs lock

Shared letters: cl. Private to "laca": a. Private to "lock": ko.

"laca" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lock" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • laca ← alca · laac · lacca · lcaa · llaca
  • lock ← lcok · llock · locck · lockk · lokc · olck

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "laca" for "lock" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈla.kɐ/ versus /lɒk/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "laca" or "lock"?
"lock" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,711 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.

Useful next steps

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 "lock" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #3,413 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "laca" and "lock" 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 #3,413 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