pactovspasmoConfusable pair

Quick tell: pacto is a noun, pasmo is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pacto” is a noun and “pasmo” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#6,454
“pacto” frequency rank
#42,145
“pasmo” frequency rank
48599
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pacto pasmo
Definition acordo feito entre duas ou mais partes acerca de algo espantado

Where the eye mixes pacto and pasmo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. pacto and pasmo follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
pacto
5 ch
pasmo

Visual trap between pacto and pasmo

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pacto is /ˈpak.tu/ while pasmo is /ˈpaʒ.mu/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48599, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pacto is recorded at frequency rank #6,454, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpak.tu/. pasmo is at rank #42,145, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈpaʒ.mu/.

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 48599, this pair ranks #16,579 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pacto vs pasmo

Shared letters: aop. Private to "pacto": ct. Private to "pasmo": ms.

"pacto" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "pasmo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pacto ← apcto · paccto · pacot · pactto · patco · pcato · ppacto
  • pasmo ← apsmo · pamso · pasmmo · pasom · passmo · ppasmo · psamo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pacto" and "pasmo" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pacto" is a noun and "pasmo" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pacto" or "pasmo"?
"pacto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,454 in our Portuguese list, against #42,145 for "pasmo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pacto" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pasmo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,579 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pacto" and "pasmo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pasmo vs pomo". 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 #16,579 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