lançavslaunchTell them apart

Which to use

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

#2,380
“lança” frequency rank
#42,531
“launch” frequency rank
44911
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lança launch
Definition uma arma longa para ser arremessada, que consiste de uma haste de madeira à qual é ligada uma ponta de metal lançamento, arremesso

Where the eye mixes lança and launch

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. lança runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against launch's 6 (CVVCCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
lança
6 ch
launch

Why the eye confuses lança with launch

A purely visual mix-up. lança (/ˈlɐ̃.sɐ/) and launch (/lɔnt͡ʃ/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44911, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lança is recorded at frequency rank #2,380, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈlɐ̃.sɐ/. launch is at rank #42,531, tagged as anoun, pronounced /lɔnt͡ʃ/.

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 44911, this pair ranks #20,522 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of lança vs launch

Shared letters: aln. Private to "lança": ç. Private to "launch": chu.

"lança" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "launch" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • launch ← alunch · lanuch · laucnh · launcch · launchh · launhc · launnch · llaunch

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lança" for "launch" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈlɐ̃.sɐ/ versus /lɔnt͡ʃ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "lança" or "launch" show up more?
"lança" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,380 in our Portuguese list, against #42,531 for "launch". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "lança" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "launch" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #20,522 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lança" and "launch" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lancha vs launch". 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 #20,522 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