passadovspesadoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#418
“passado” frequency rank
#3,509
“pesado” frequency rank
3927
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature passado pesado
Definition diz-se do evento que não mais ocorre ou da coisa que não mais existe que pesa muito

Letter map: passado vs pesado

Shared letters muted; letters that set passado and pesado apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. passado runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against pesado's 6 (CVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
passado
6 ch
pesado

Spelling & dictionary notes on passado vs pesado

passado and pesado 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 differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3927, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

passado is recorded at frequency rank #418, classified as anadj. pesado is at rank #3,509, tagged as anadj, pronounced /pɨ.ˈza.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 3927, this pair ranks #71,143 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of passado vs pesado

Shared letters: adops. Private to "passado": -. Private to "pesado": e.

"passado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "pesado" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • passado ← apssado · pasado · pasasdo · passaddo · passaod · passdao · ppassado · psasado
  • pesado ← epsado · peasdo · pesaddo · pesaod · pesdao · pessado · ppesado · pseado

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "passado" and "pesado" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 1 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "passado" vs "pesado" - which ranks higher?
"passado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #418 in our Portuguese list, against #3,509 for "pesado". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "passado" vs "pesado" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "passado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pesado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #71,143 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "passado" and "pesado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pesado vs prelado". 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 #71,143 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