pançavspercaTell them apart

Which to use

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

#39,779
“pança” frequency rank
#4,502
“perca” frequency rank
44281
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pança perca
Definition um dos estômagos dos ruminantes, o primeiro e o maior; bandulho peixe de água doce, da família dos Percídeos (Percidae), de carne muito apreciada

Letter map: pança vs perca

Shared letters muted; letters that set pança and perca apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. pança and perca follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
pança
5 ch
perca

Spelling & dictionary notes on pança vs perca

pança and perca are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44281, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pança is recorded at frequency rank #39,779, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɐ̃.sɐ/. perca is at rank #4,502, tagged as anoun.

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 44281, this pair ranks #21,226 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pança vs perca

Shared letters: ap. Private to "pança": nç. Private to "perca": cer.

"pança" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "perca" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perca ← eprca · pecra · perac · percca · perrca · pperca · preca

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pança" for "perca" ever safe?
No. They share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Which is more common, "pança" or "perca"?
"perca" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,502 in our Portuguese list, against #39,779 for "pança". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

You've compared "pança" and "perca". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pança" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "perca" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #21,226 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pança" and "perca" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "paçoca vs pança". 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 #21,226 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