laiavslaicoTell them apart

Quick tell: laia is a noun, laico is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“laia” is a noun and “laico” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#37,883
“laia” frequency rank
#25,719
“laico” frequency rank
63602
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature laia laico
Definition lã quem ou que não pertence ao clero; secular, leigo, sem confissão

Letter map: laia vs laico

Shared letters muted; letters that set laia and laico apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. laia runs 4 letters (CVVV) against laico's 5 (CVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
laia
5 ch
laico

Role in the sentence - laia and laico

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: laia is anoun and laicoanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63602, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

laia is recorded at frequency rank #37,883, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈlaj.ɐ/. laico is at rank #25,719, tagged as anadj.

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 63602, this pair ranks #6,120 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of laia vs laico

Shared letters: ail. Private to "laia": -. Private to "laico": co.

"laia" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "laico" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • laia ← alia · laai · liaa · llaia
  • laico ← alico · lacio · laicco · laioc · liaco · llaico

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "laia" and "laico" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "laia" is a noun and "laico" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "laia" or "laico"?
"laico" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,719 in our Portuguese list, against #37,883 for "laia". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "laia" vs "laico" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "laia" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "laico" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #6,120 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "laia" and "laico" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laia vs liana". 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 #6,120 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