padrevsPedroWhat's the difference?

Which to use

“padre” and “Pedro” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#1,580
“padre” frequency rank
#830
“Pedro” frequency rank
2410
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature padre Pedro
Definition membro da igreja católica; sacerdote prenome masculino

Where the eye mixes padre and Pedro

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
padre
5 ch
Pedro

Why the eye confuses padre with Pedro

A purely visual mix-up. padre (/ˈpa.dɾɨ/) and Pedro (/'pe.dɾu/.) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 2410, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

padre is recorded at frequency rank #1,580, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpa.dɾɨ/. Pedro is at rank #830, tagged as anoun, pronounced /'pe.dɾu/..

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 2410, this pair ranks #72,991 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of padre vs Pedro

Shared letters: depr. Private to "padre": a. Private to "Pedro": o.

"padre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Pedro" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • padreapdre · paddre · pader · padrre · parde · pdare · ppadre
  • Pedroepdro · pdero · peddro · pedor · pedrro · perdo · ppedro

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "padre" for "Pedro" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpa.dɾɨ/ versus /'pe.dɾu/.) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "padre" or "Pedro"?
"Pedro" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #830 in our Portuguese list, against #1,580 for "padre". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "padre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Pedro" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #72,991 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "padre" and "Pedro" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "padre 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 #72,991 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