pan vs paz, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#4,573
“pan” frequency rank: #453
“paz” frequency rank: 5026
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	pan	paz
Definition	a designação, dirigindo-se a uma pessoa pelo seu nome, apelido, título ou profissão; Sr.	estado de coisas que se caracteriza pela harmonia entre os elementos que nele habitam

Where the eye mixes pan and paz

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch

pan

3 ch

paz

Why the eye confuses pan with paz

A purely visual mix-up. pan (/ˈpan) and paz (/ˈpaʃ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - n in “pan” becomes z in “paz”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 5026, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pan is recorded at frequency rank #4,573, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpan. paz is at rank #453, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpaʃ/.

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 5026, this pair ranks #69,698 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pan vs paz

Shared letters: ap. Private to "pan": n. Private to "paz": z.

"pan" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "paz" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pan" for "paz" ever safe?

No. They are said differently (/ˈpan versus /ˈpaʃ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Frequency check: "pan" vs "paz" - which ranks higher?

"paz" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #453 in our Portuguese list, against #4,573 for "pan". 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 "pan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
Full dictionary entry for "paz" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
This pair ranks #69,698 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
"pan" and "paz" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pan vs pix". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #69,698 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.