pedovspegWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“pedo” and “peg” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#35,454
“pedo” frequency rank
#15,243
“peg” frequency rank
50697
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pedo peg
Definition Alternative spelling of paedo (“pedophile”). A cylindrical wooden or metal object used to fasten or as a bearing between objects.

Where the eye mixes pedo and peg

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
pedo
3 ch
peg

Why the eye confuses pedo with peg

A purely visual mix-up. pedo (/ˈpɛd.əʊ/) and peg (/pɛɡ/) 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 50697, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pedo is recorded at frequency rank #35,454, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɛd.əʊ/. peg is at rank #15,243, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɛɡ/.

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 50697, this pair ranks #171,965 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pedo vs peg

Shared letters: ep. Private to "pedo": do. Private to "peg": g.

"pedo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "peg" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pedoepdo · pdeo · peddo · peod · ppedo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pedo" for "peg" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpɛd.əʊ/ versus /pɛɡ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pedo" or "peg"?
"peg" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,243 in our English list, against #35,454 for "pedo". 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 "pedo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "peg" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #171,965 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pedo" and "peg" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pecs vs pedo". 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 #171,965 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list