Which to use
“pecar” and “picar” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,725
- “pecar” frequency rank
- #26,144
- “picar” frequency rank
- 58869
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pecar | picar |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | cometer pecado | dar picadas em |
Where the eye mixes pecar and picar
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pecar and picar follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Why the eye confuses pecar with picar
A purely visual mix-up. pecar (/pɨ.ˈkaɾ/) and picar (/pi.ˈkaɾ/) 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 - e in “pecar” becomes i in “picar”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 58869, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pecar is recorded at frequency rank #32,725, classified as averb, pronounced /pɨ.ˈkaɾ/. picar is at rank #26,144, tagged as averb, pronounced /pi.ˈkaɾ/.
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 58869, this pair ranks #8,501 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of pecar vs picar
Shared letters: acpr. Private to "pecar": e. Private to "picar": i.
"pecar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "picar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pecar" and "picar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
Which is more common, "pecar" or "picar"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "pecar" and "picar" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "pecar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "picar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #8,501 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pecar" and "picar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pacas vs pecar". 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 #8,501 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.