parecervsperecerWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: parecer is a noun, perecer is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“parecer” is a noun and “perecer” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,794
“parecer” frequency rank
#45,989
“perecer” frequency rank
47783
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature parecer perecer
Definition opinião fundamentada deixar de ser ou de existir

Where the eye mixes parecer and perecer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. parecer and perecer follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
parecer
7 ch
perecer

Visual trap between parecer and perecer

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: parecer is /pɐ.ɾɨ.ˈseɾ/ while perecer is /pɨ.ɾɨ.ˈseɾ/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “parecer” becomes e in “perecer”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47783, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

parecer is recorded at frequency rank #1,794, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɐ.ɾɨ.ˈseɾ/. perecer is at rank #45,989, tagged as averb, pronounced /pɨ.ɾɨ.ˈseɾ/.

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 47783, this pair ranks #17,445 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of parecer vs perecer

Shared letters: cepr. Private to "parecer": a. Private to "perecer": -.

"parecer" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "perecer" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • parecer ← aprecer · paercer · parceer · pareccer · parecerr · parecre · pareecr · parrecer
  • perecer ← eprecer · peercer · perceer · pereccer · perecerr · perecre · pereecr · perrecer

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "parecer" for "perecer" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "parecer" is a noun and "perecer" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "parecer" vs "perecer" - which ranks higher?
"parecer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,794 in our Portuguese list, against #45,989 for "perecer". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "parecer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "perecer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #17,445 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "parecer" and "perecer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "perecer vs perene". 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 #17,445 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