pesosvspestoConfusable pair

Which to use

“pesos” and “pesto” are a confusable French pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#32,524
“pesos” frequency rank
#40,918
“pesto” frequency rank
73442
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pesos pesto
Definition Pluriel de peso. Sauce italienne, proche du pistou, composée de basilic, de pignons de pin, d’huile d’olive, d’ail et de fromage râpé.

Where the eye mixes pesos and pesto

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pesos (CVCVC) and pesto (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
pesos
5 ch
pesto

Visual trap between pesos and pesto

A purely visual mix-up. pesos (\pə.zɔs\) and pesto (\pɛs.to\) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73442, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pesos is recorded at frequency rank #32,524, classified as anoun, pronounced \pə.zɔs\. pesto is at rank #40,918, tagged as anoun, pronounced \pɛs.to\.

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 73442, this pair ranks #40,460 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pesos vs pesto

Shared letters: eops. Private to "pesos": -. Private to "pesto": t.

"pesos" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "pesto" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pesosepsos · peoss · pesoss · pesso · pessos · ppesos · pseos
  • pestoepsto · pesot · pessto · pestto · petso · ppesto · pseto

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pesos" and "pesto" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (\pə.zɔs\ versus \pɛs.to\) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary French text, does "pesos" or "pesto" show up more?
"pesos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,524 in our French list, against #40,918 for "pesto". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "pesos" and "pesto" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pesos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pesto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #40,460 of 440,172 scored French confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pesos" and "pesto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peso vs pesto". 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 #40,460 of 440,172 scored French pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list