lucavsluzTell them apart

Which to use

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

#17,068
“luca” frequency rank
#604
“luz” frequency rank
17672
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature luca luz
Definition o mesmo que carta do baralho única radiação captada pelo olho humano

Where the eye mixes luca and luz

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
luca
3 ch
luz

Visual trap between luca and luz

A purely visual mix-up. luca (/ˈlu.kɐ/) and luz (/ˈluʃ/) 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 17672, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

luca is recorded at frequency rank #17,068, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈlu.kɐ/. luz is at rank #604, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈluʃ/.

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 17672, this pair ranks #53,513 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of luca vs luz

Shared letters: lu. Private to "luca": ac. Private to "luz": z.

"luca" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "luz" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • lucalcua · lluca · luac · lucca · ulca

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "luca" for "luz" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈlu.kɐ/ versus /ˈluʃ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "luca" or "luz" show up more?
"luz" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #604 in our Portuguese list, against #17,068 for "luca". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "luca" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "luz" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #53,513 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "luca" and "luz" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "loch vs luca". 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 #53,513 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