pãovspixWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#1,942
“pão” frequency rank
#47,539
“pix” frequency rank
49481
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pão pix
Definition alimento à base de farinha amassada, fermentada e assada em forno que ocorre pelo sistema brasileiro de transferência bancária digital instantânea Pix

Letter map: pão vs pix

Shared letters muted; letters that set pão and pix apart highlighted. Shared run: 1. pão (CVV) and pix (CVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

3 ch
pão
3 ch
pix

Part-of-speech tell for pão / pix

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: pão is anoun and pixanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49481, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pão is recorded at frequency rank #1,942, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɐ̃w̃/. pix is at rank #47,539, tagged as anadj.

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 49481, this pair ranks #15,519 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pão vs pix

Shared letters: p. Private to "pão": oã. Private to "pix": ix.

"pão" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "pix" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pão" for "pix" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pão" is a noun and "pix" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pão" or "pix"?
"pão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,942 in our Portuguese list, against #47,539 for "pix". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "pão" and "pix".

  • Full dictionary entry for "pão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pix" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #15,519 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pão" and "pix" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pito vs pix". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #15,519 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