rolhavsroscaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#30,711
“rolha” frequency rank
#29,898
“rosca” frequency rank
60609
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature rolha rosca
Definition peça (normalmente de cortiça) com que se tapam recipientes de boca estreita coisa redonda e roliça que, ao fechar-se, forma um círculo ou um oval, deixando no meio um espaço vazio

Where the eye mixes rolha and rosca

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

5 ch
rolha
5 ch
rosca

Why the eye confuses rolha with rosca

A purely visual mix-up. rolha (/ˈRo.ʎɐ/) and rosca (/ˈRoʃ.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 60609, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

rolha is recorded at frequency rank #30,711, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈRo.ʎɐ/. rosca is at rank #29,898, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈRoʃ.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 60609, this pair ranks #7,554 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of rolha vs rosca

Shared letters: aor. Private to "rolha": hl. Private to "rosca": cs.

"rolha" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "rosca" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • rolhaorlha · rloha · rohla · rolah · rolhha · rollha · rrolha
  • roscaorsca · rocsa · rosac · roscca · rossca · rrosca · rsoca

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "rolha" and "rosca" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈRo.ʎɐ/ versus /ˈRoʃ.kɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "rolha" or "rosca"?
"rosca" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,898 in our Portuguese list, against #30,711 for "rolha". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "rolha" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rosca" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #7,554 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "rolha" and "rosca" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rasca vs rosca". 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 #7,554 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