zavszicaWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: za is a preposition, zica is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“za” is a preposition and “zica” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#37,595
“za” frequency rank
#45,652
“zica” frequency rank
83247
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature za zica
Definition durante doença causada pelo vírus da zica, transmitido ao homem pela picada do mosquito Aedes aegypti

Letter map: za vs zica

Shared letters muted; letters that set za and zica apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. za runs 2 letters (CV) against zica's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

2 ch
za
4 ch
zica

Role in the sentence - za and zica

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: za is apreposition and zicaanoun. On the page they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 83247, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

za is recorded at frequency rank #37,595, classified as aprep, pronounced /ˈza/ ouvir^(fonte ?). zica is at rank #45,652, 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 83247, this pair ranks #932 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of za vs zica

Shared letters: az. Private to "za": -. Private to "zica": ci.

"za" · 2 letters · shape CV  ·  "zica" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • zica ← izca · zcia · ziac · zicca · zzica

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "za" and "zica" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "za" is a preposition and "zica" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "za" or "zica"?
"za" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,595 in our Portuguese list, against #45,652 for "zica". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "za" and "zica". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "za" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "zica" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #932 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "za" and "zica" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "za vs zag". 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 #932 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