notavsnucaTell them apart

Which to use

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

#873
“nota” frequency rank
#14,197
“nuca” frequency rank
15070
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nota nuca
Definition papel-moeda parte posterior e superior do pescoço

Where the eye mixes nota and nuca

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

4 ch
nota
4 ch
nuca

Look-alike desk: nota vs nuca

A purely visual mix-up. nota (/ˈnɔ.tɐ/) and nuca (/ˈnu.kɐ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15070, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nota is recorded at frequency rank #873, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈnɔ.tɐ/. nuca is at rank #14,197, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈnu.kɐ/.

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 15070, this pair ranks #56,860 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of nota vs nuca

Shared letters: an. Private to "nota": ot. Private to "nuca": cu.

"nota" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "nuca" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • notannota · noat · notta · ntoa · onta
  • nucancua · nuac · nucca · unca

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "nota" for "nuca" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈnɔ.tɐ/ versus /ˈnu.kɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "nota" or "nuca" show up more?
"nota" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #873 in our Portuguese list, against #14,197 for "nuca". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "nota" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nuca" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #56,860 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nota" and "nuca" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "nuca vs null". 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 #56,860 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