lacunavslâminaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#15,606
“lacuna” frequency rank
#9,367
“lâmina” frequency rank
24973
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lacuna lâmina
Definition falha, falta, vazio, omissão, hiato folha de instrumento cortante

Where the eye mixes lacuna and lâmina

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. lacuna and lâmina follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
lacuna
6 ch
lâmina

Visual trap between lacuna and lâmina

A purely visual mix-up. lacuna (/lɐ.ˈku.nɐ/) and lâmina (/ˈlɐ.mi.nɐ/) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24973, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lacuna is recorded at frequency rank #15,606, classified as anoun, pronounced /lɐ.ˈku.nɐ/. lâmina is at rank #9,367, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈlɐ.mi.nɐ/.

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 24973, this pair ranks #44,459 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lacuna vs lâmina

Shared letters: aln. Private to "lacuna": cu. Private to "lâmina": imâ.

"lacuna" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "lâmina" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lacuna ← alcuna · laccuna · lacnua · lacuan · lacunna · laucna · lcauna · llacuna

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "lacuna" and "lâmina" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/lɐ.ˈku.nɐ/ versus /ˈlɐ.mi.nɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "lacuna" vs "lâmina" - which ranks higher?
"lâmina" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,367 in our Portuguese list, against #15,606 for "lacuna". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "lacuna" and "lâmina" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lacuna" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lâmina" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #44,459 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lacuna" and "lâmina" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laca vs lacuna". 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 #44,459 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