riscavsrocaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#23,492
“risca” frequency rank
#20,120
“roca” frequency rank
43612
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature risca roca
Definition risco; traço; listra cana ou vara preparada para fiar

Where the eye mixes risca and roca

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
risca
4 ch
roca

Visual trap between risca and roca

A purely visual mix-up. risca (/ˈRiʃ.kɐ/) and roca (/ˈRɔ.kɐ/) 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 43612, 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/. roca is at rank #20,120, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈRɔ.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 43612, this pair ranks #22,013 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of risca vs roca

Shared letters: acr. Private to "risca": is. Private to "roca": o.

"risca" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "roca" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • riscairsca · ricsa · risac · riscca · rissca · rrisca · rsica
  • rocaorca · rcoa · roac · rocca · rroca

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "risca" and "roca" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈRiʃ.kɐ/ versus /ˈRɔ.kɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "risca" or "roca" show up more?
"roca" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #20,120 in our Portuguese list, against #23,492 for "risca". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "risca" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "roca" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #22,013 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "risca" and "roca" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "roca vs ruma". 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 #22,013 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