sacavssarnaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#15,678
“saca” frequency rank
#40,325
“sarna” frequency rank
56003
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature saca sarna
Definition ato de sacar afecção da pele

Where the eye mixes saca and sarna

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. saca runs 4 letters (CVCV) against sarna's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
saca
5 ch
sarna

Visual trap between saca and sarna

A purely visual mix-up. saca (/ˈsa.kɐ/) and sarna (/ˈsaɾ.nɐ/) 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 56003, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

saca is recorded at frequency rank #15,678, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsa.kɐ/. sarna is at rank #40,325, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsaɾ.nɐ/.

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 56003, this pair ranks #10,242 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of saca vs sarna

Shared letters: as. Private to "saca": c. Private to "sarna": nr.

"saca" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "sarna" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • saca ← asca · saac · sacca · scaa · ssaca
  • sarna ← asrna · saran · sarnna · sarrna · srana · ssarna

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "saca" and "sarna" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈsa.kɐ/ versus /ˈsaɾ.nɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "saca" or "sarna" show up more?
"saca" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,678 in our Portuguese list, against #40,325 for "sarna". 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 "saca" and "sarna" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "saca" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sarna" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #10,242 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "saca" and "sarna" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "saba vs sarna". 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 #10,242 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