packvspanConfusable pair

Quick tell: pack is a verb, pan is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pack” is a verb and “pan” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,950
“pack” frequency rank
#4,573
“pan” frequency rank
17523
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pack pan
Definition apinhar, lotar a designação, dirigindo-se a uma pessoa pelo seu nome, apelido, título ou profissão; Sr.

Letter map: pack vs pan

Shared letters muted; letters that set pack and pan apart highlighted. Shared run: 2.

4 ch
pack
3 ch
pan

Role in the sentence - pack and pan

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: pack is averb and pananoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17523, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pack is recorded at frequency rank #12,950, classified as averb. pan is at rank #4,573, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpan.

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 17523, this pair ranks #53,706 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pack vs pan

Shared letters: ap. Private to "pack": ck. Private to "pan": n.

"pack" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "pan" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • packapck · pacck · packk · pakc · pcak · ppack

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pack" and "pan" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pack" is a verb and "pan" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "pack" or "pan" show up more?
"pan" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,573 in our Portuguese list, against #12,950 for "pack". 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 "pack" and "pan". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pack" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pan" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #53,706 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pack" and "pan" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pack vs pale". 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 #53,706 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