poçavspoxaWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: poça is a noun, poxa is an intj, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“poça” is a noun and “poxa” is an intj - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#29,093
“poça” frequency rank
#20,097
“poxa” frequency rank
49190
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature poça poxa
Definition cavidade pouco profunda onde se acumula água indica surpresa, admiração, irritação

Letter map: poça vs poxa

Shared letters muted; letters that set poça and poxa apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. poça and poxa follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
poça
4 ch
poxa

Role in the sentence - poça and poxa

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: poça is anoun and poxaanintj. On the page they differ by a single letter - ç in “poça” becomes x in “poxa”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49190, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

poça is recorded at frequency rank #29,093, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpo.sɐ/. poxa is at rank #20,097, tagged as anintj.

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 49190, this pair ranks #15,873 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of poça vs poxa

Shared letters: aop. Private to "poça": ç. Private to "poxa": x.

"poça" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "poxa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • poxa ← opxa · poax · poxxa · ppoxa · pxoa

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "poça" and "poxa" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "poça" is a noun and "poxa" an intj, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "poça" or "poxa"?
"poxa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,097 in our Portuguese list, against #29,093 for "poça". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "poça" vs "poxa" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "poça" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "poxa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #15,873 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "poça" and "poxa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "paçoca vs poça". 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 #15,873 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