riscavsriscoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#23,492
“risca” frequency rank
#1,084
“risco” frequency rank
24576
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature risca risco
Definition risco; traço; listra delineamento; modelo; plano; planta; sulco; traçado; traço

Where the eye mixes risca and risco

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
risca
5 ch
risco

Look-alike desk: risca vs risco

A purely visual mix-up. risca (/ˈRiʃ.kɐ/) and risco (/ˈRiʃ.ku/) 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 a single letter - a in “risca” becomes o in “risco”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24576, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

risca is recorded at frequency rank #23,492, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈRiʃ.kɐ/. risco is at rank #1,084, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈRiʃ.ku/.

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 24576, this pair ranks #44,996 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of risca vs risco

Shared letters: cirs. Private to "risca": a. Private to "risco": o.

"risca" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "risco" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • riscairsca · ricsa · risac · riscca · rissca · rrisca · rsica
  • riscoirsco · ricso · riscco · risoc · rissco · rrisco · rsico

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "risca" and "risco" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈRiʃ.kɐ/ versus /ˈRiʃ.ku/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "risca" vs "risco" - which ranks higher?
"risco" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,084 in our Portuguese list, against #23,492 for "risca". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "risca" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "risco" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #44,996 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "risca" and "risco" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rasca vs risca". 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 #44,996 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