peãovspilãoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#15,423
“peão” frequency rank
#45,522
“pilão” frequency rank
60945
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature peão pilão
Definition empregado sem subordinados que atua em diversas atividades, como agropecuária e construção civil mão do almofariz

Where the eye mixes peão and pilão

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. peão runs 4 letters (CVVV) against pilão's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
peão
5 ch
pilão

Look-alike desk: peão vs pilão

A purely visual mix-up. peão (/ˈpjɐ̃w̃/) and pilão (/pi.ˈlɐ̃w̃/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60945, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

peão is recorded at frequency rank #15,423, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpjɐ̃w̃/. pilão is at rank #45,522, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pi.ˈlɐ̃w̃/.

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 60945, this pair ranks #7,395 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of peão vs pilão

Shared letters: opã. Private to "peão": e. Private to "pilão": il.

"peão" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "pilão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "peão" for "pilão" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpjɐ̃w̃/ versus /pi.ˈlɐ̃w̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "peão" or "pilão" show up more?
"peão" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,423 in our Portuguese list, against #45,522 for "pilão". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "peão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pilão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #7,395 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "peão" and "pilão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pilão vs platô". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #7,395 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