peakvspeckTell them apart

Which to use

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

#36,150
“peak” frequency rank
#31,091
“peck” frequency rank
67241
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature peak peck
Definition pico bicada

Where the eye mixes peak and peck

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. peak (CVVC) and peck (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
peak
4 ch
peck

Why the eye confuses peak with peck

A purely visual mix-up. peak (/pi:k/) and peck (/pɛk/) 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 - a in “peak” becomes c in “peck”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67241, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

peak is recorded at frequency rank #36,150, classified as anoun, pronounced /pi:k/. peck is at rank #31,091, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɛk/.

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 67241, this pair ranks #4,708 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of peak vs peck

Shared letters: ekp. Private to "peak": a. Private to "peck": c.

"peak" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "peck" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • peak ← epak · paek · peakk · peka · ppeak
  • peck ← epck · pcek · pecck · peckk · pekc · ppeck

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "peak" and "peck" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/pi:k/ versus /pɛk/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "peak" or "peck"?
"peck" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,091 in our Portuguese list, against #36,150 for "peak". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "peak" and "peck" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "peak" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "peck" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #4,708 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "peak" and "peck" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peach vs peak". 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 #4,708 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