lousavslouvarWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#32,242
“lousa” frequency rank
#29,810
“louvar” frequency rank
62052
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature lousa louvar
Definition quadro-negro dirigir louvores a

Where the eye mixes lousa and louvar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. lousa runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against louvar's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
lousa
6 ch
louvar

Visual trap between lousa and louvar

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lousa is /ˈlow.zɐ/ while louvar is /low.ˈvaɾ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 62052, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

lousa is recorded at frequency rank #32,242, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈlow.zɐ/. louvar is at rank #29,810, tagged as averb, pronounced /low.ˈvaɾ/.

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 62052, this pair ranks #6,852 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of lousa vs louvar

Shared letters: alou. Private to "lousa": s. Private to "louvar": rv.

"lousa" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "louvar" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lousa ← llousa · losua · louas · loussa · luosa · olusa
  • louvar ← llouvar · louavr · louvarr · louvra · louvvar · lovuar · luovar · oluvar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "lousa" for "louvar" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "lousa" is a noun and "louvar" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "lousa" or "louvar"?
"louvar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,810 in our Portuguese list, against #32,242 for "lousa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "lousa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "louvar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #6,852 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "lousa" and "louvar" 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 #6,852 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