pálidovspedidoConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#24,131
“pálido” frequency rank
#1,126
“pedido” frequency rank
25257
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pálido pedido
Definition descorado, demasiadamente branco ou amarelo solicitado

Where the eye mixes pálido and pedido

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pálido and pedido follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
pálido
6 ch
pedido

Visual trap between pálido and pedido

A purely visual mix-up. pálido (/ˈpa.li.du/) and pedido (/pɨ.ˈdi.du/) 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 25257, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pálido is recorded at frequency rank #24,131, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˈpa.li.du/. pedido is at rank #1,126, tagged as anadj, pronounced /pɨ.ˈdi.du/.

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 25257, this pair ranks #44,096 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pálido vs pedido

Shared letters: diop. Private to "pálido": lá. Private to "pedido": e.

"pálido" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "pedido" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pedido ← epdido · pdeido · peddido · peddio · pediddo · pediod · peiddo · ppedido

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pálido" for "pedido" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpa.li.du/ versus /pɨ.ˈdi.du/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pálido" vs "pedido" - which ranks higher?
"pedido" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,126 in our Portuguese list, against #24,131 for "pálido". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pálido" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pedido" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #44,096 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pálido" and "pedido" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pálido vs papiro". 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 #44,096 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