socavssoltaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#36,234
“soca” frequency rank
#4,270
“solta” frequency rank
40504
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature soca solta
Definition calçado feito em madeira ato ou efeito de soltar

Where the eye mixes soca and solta

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

4 ch
soca
5 ch
solta

Why the eye confuses soca with solta

A purely visual mix-up. soca (/ˈsɔ.kɐ/) and solta (/ˈsoɫ.tɐ/) 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 40504, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

soca is recorded at frequency rank #36,234, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈsɔ.kɐ/. solta is at rank #4,270, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈsoɫ.tɐ/.

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 40504, this pair ranks #25,591 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of soca vs solta

Shared letters: aos. Private to "soca": c. Private to "solta": lt.

"soca" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "solta" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • soca ← osca · scoa · soac · socca · ssoca
  • solta ← oslta · slota · solat · sollta · soltta · sotla · ssolta

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "soca" for "solta" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈsɔ.kɐ/ versus /ˈsoɫ.tɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "soca" or "solta"?
"solta" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,270 in our Portuguese list, against #36,234 for "soca". 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 "soca" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "solta" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #25,591 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "soca" and "solta" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "soap vs soca". 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 #25,591 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