umavsurcaTell them apart

Quick tell: uma is a article, urca is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“uma” is an article and “urca” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13
“uma” frequency rank
#32,012
“urca” frequency rank
32025
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature uma urca
Definition feminino de um forca, instrumento de lavoura

Letter map: uma vs urca

Shared letters muted; letters that set uma and urca apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

3 ch
uma
4 ch
urca

Grammar separator: uma vs urca

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: uma is anarticle and urcaanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32025, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

uma is recorded at frequency rank #13, classified as anarticle, pronounced /ˈu.mɐ/. urca is at rank #32,012, tagged as anoun.

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 32025, this pair ranks #35,895 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of uma vs urca

Shared letters: au. Private to "uma": m. Private to "urca": cr.

"uma" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "urca" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • urcaruca · urac · urcca · urrca

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "uma" and "urca" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "uma" is an article and "urca" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "uma" vs "urca" - which ranks higher?
"uma" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13 in our Portuguese list, against #32,012 for "urca". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pair "uma" vs "urca" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "uma" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "urca" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #35,895 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "uma" and "urca" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "urca vs urdu". 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 #35,895 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