packvsparaWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#12,950
“pack” frequency rank
#10
“para” frequency rank
12960
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pack para
Definition apinhar, lotar exprime fim, destino, lugar, tempo, direção etc

Letter map: pack vs para

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

4 ch
pack
4 ch
para

Part-of-speech tell for pack / para

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: pack is averb and paraapreposition. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 12960, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pack is recorded at frequency rank #12,950, classified as averb. para is at rank #10, tagged as aprep, pronounced /ˈpɐ.ɾɐ/.

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 12960, this pair ranks #59,489 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pack vs para

Shared letters: ap. Private to "pack": ck. Private to "para": r.

"pack" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "para" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • packapck · pacck · packk · pakc · pcak · ppack
  • paraapra · paar · ppara · praa

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pack" and "para" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pack" is a verb and "para" a preposition, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "pack" vs "para" - which ranks higher?
"para" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10 in our Portuguese list, against #12,950 for "pack". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "pack" and "para".

  • Full dictionary entry for "pack" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "para" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #59,489 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pack" and "para" 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 #59,489 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