rocavsroupaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#20,120
“roca” frequency rank
#1,372
“roupa” frequency rank
21492
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature roca roupa
Definition cana ou vara preparada para fiar peça de tecido usada para cobrir partes do corpo

Where the eye mixes roca and roupa

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

4 ch
roca
5 ch
roupa

Visual trap between roca and roupa

A purely visual mix-up. roca (/ˈRɔ.kɐ/) and roupa (/ˈRow.pɐ/) 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 21492, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

roca is recorded at frequency rank #20,120, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈRɔ.kɐ/. roupa is at rank #1,372, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈRow.pɐ/.

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 21492, this pair ranks #48,744 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of roca vs roupa

Shared letters: aor. Private to "roca": c. Private to "roupa": pu.

"roca" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "roupa" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rocaorca · rcoa · roac · rocca · rroca
  • roupaorupa · ropua · rouap · rouppa · rroupa · ruopa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "roca" for "roupa" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈRɔ.kɐ/ versus /ˈRow.pɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "roca" vs "roupa" - which ranks higher?
"roupa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,372 in our Portuguese list, against #20,120 for "roca". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "roca" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "roupa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #48,744 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "roca" and "roupa" 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 #48,744 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