terçavstrocaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,592
“terça” frequency rank
#1,264
“troca” frequency rank
2856
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature terça troca
Definition estrofe que contém três versos o ato de trocar; substituir uma coisa por outra

Where the eye mixes terça and troca

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

5 ch
terça
5 ch
troca

Look-alike desk: terça vs troca

A purely visual mix-up. terça (/ˈteɾ.sɐ/) and troca (/ˈtɾɔ.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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2856, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

terça is recorded at frequency rank #1,592, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈteɾ.sɐ/. troca is at rank #1,264, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈtɾɔ.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 2856, this pair ranks #72,393 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of terça vs troca

Shared letters: art. Private to "terça": . Private to "troca": co.

"terça" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "troca" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • trocartoca · torca · trcoa · troac · trocca · trroca · ttroca

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "terça" for "troca" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈteɾ.sɐ/ versus /ˈtɾɔ.kɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "terça" or "troca" show up more?
"troca" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,264 in our Portuguese list, against #1,592 for "terça". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "terça" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "troca" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #72,393 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "terça" and "troca" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "trema vs troca". 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 #72,393 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