packvspicaConfusable pair

Quick tell: pack is a verb, pica is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#12,950
“pack” frequency rank
#7,962
“pica” frequency rank
20912
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pack pica
Definition apinhar, lotar excelente, de grande qualidade

Letter map: pack vs pica

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

4 ch
pack
4 ch
pica

Role in the sentence - pack and pica

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: pack is averb and picaanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20912, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pack is recorded at frequency rank #12,950, classified as averb. pica is at rank #7,962, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈpi.kɐ/.

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 20912, this pair ranks #49,491 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pack vs pica

Shared letters: acp. Private to "pack": k. Private to "pica": i.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • packapck · pacck · packk · pakc · pcak · ppack
  • picaipca · pcia · piac · picca · ppica

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pack" for "pica" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pack" is a verb and "pica" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "pack" vs "pica" - which ranks higher?
"pica" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,962 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.

Useful next steps

You've compared "pack" and "pica". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pack" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pica" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #49,491 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pack" and "pica" 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 #49,491 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