pastel
/pɐʃ.ˈtɛɫ/
The verdict
“pastel” is a moderately-common Portuguese word, ranked #17,097 in Portuguese word frequency and used as a noun.
- #17,097
- frequency rank, Portuguese
- 6
- letters
- 9
- tracked misspellings
- 14
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - massa de farinha, cozida no forno ou frita, e recheada de carne, peixe ou doce, etc
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | pastel |
| Language | Portuguese |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /pɐʃ.ˈtɛɫ/ |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #17,097 |
| Misspellings tracked | 9 |
| Confusable pairs | 14 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “pastel” sits in Portuguese frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The Portuguese entry for pastel is 6 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as /pɐʃ.ˈtɛɫ/. Corpus data places it at rank #17,097 in overall Portuguese word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 7 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 9 likely wrong-spelling variants for pastel, with forms such as "apstel", "pasetl", and "passtel". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 14 confusable-pair relationships, "poste", "peste", "pasto", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct Portuguese form is pastel, spelled P-A-S-T-E-L.
Definition
- 1massa de farinha, cozida no forno ou frita, e recheada de carne, peixe ou doce, etc
- 2qualquer uma das várias tonalidades de cores esmaecidas (usualmente associadas com o rosa, pêssego, verde, azul, lavanda e amarelo)
- 3desenho feito com lápis de cores
- 4pessoa adoentada; indolente
- 5adepto do Clube de Futebol Os Belenenses
- 6pessoa tola
- 7planta da família das crucíferas
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: apstel,pasetl,passtel,pastell,pastle,pasttel,patsel,ppastel,psatel
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of pastel - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 Portuguese corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "pastel"?
What does "pastel" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "pastel"?
How do you pronounce "pastel"?
What language does "pastel" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “pastel”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Portuguese spelling is P-A-S-T-E-L - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as /pɐʃ.ˈtɛɫ/ (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “poste” - see the side-by-side comparison. pastel vs poste
- Browse more Portuguese words and confusable pairs in the same reference. Portuguese words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.