loucovslousaConfusable pair

Quick tell: louco is a adjective, lousa is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#1,649
“louco” frequency rank
#32,242
“lousa” frequency rank
33891
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature louco lousa
Definition que perdeu a razão, maluco, demente, vesano, amente quadro-negro

Letter map: louco vs lousa

Shared letters muted; letters that set louco and lousa apart highlighted. Shared run: 3.

5 ch
louco
5 ch
lousa

Grammar separator: louco vs lousa

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: louco is anadjective and lousaanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33891, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

louco is recorded at frequency rank #1,649, classified as anadj. lousa is at rank #32,242, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈlow.zɐ/.

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 33891, this pair ranks #33,506 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of louco vs lousa

Shared letters: lou. Private to "louco": c. Private to "lousa": as.

"louco" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "lousa" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • loucollouco · locuo · loucco · louoc · luoco · oluco
  • lousallousa · losua · louas · loussa · luosa · olusa

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "louco" and "lousa" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "louco" is an adjective and "lousa" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "louco" or "lousa" show up more?
"louco" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,649 in our Portuguese list, against #32,242 for "lousa". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "louco" and "lousa". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "louco" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lousa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #33,506 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "louco" and "lousa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "loiça vs lousa". 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 #33,506 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