pecarvspiscarWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#32,725
“pecar” frequency rank
#15,179
“piscar” frequency rank
47904
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pecar piscar
Definition cometer pecado ação de fechar e abrir rapidamente os olhos

Where the eye mixes pecar and piscar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pecar runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against piscar's 6 (CVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
pecar
6 ch
piscar

Look-alike desk: pecar vs piscar

A purely visual mix-up. pecar (/pɨ.ˈkaɾ/) and piscar (/pisˈka(ʁ)/ [pisˈka(h)]) 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 47904, 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/. piscar is at rank #15,179, tagged as averb, pronounced /pisˈka(ʁ)/ [pisˈka(h)].

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 47904, this pair ranks #17,308 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pecar vs piscar

Shared letters: acpr. Private to "pecar": e. Private to "piscar": is.

"pecar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "piscar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pecar ← epcar · pcear · peacr · pecarr · peccar · ppecar
  • piscar ← ipscar · picsar · pisacr · piscarr · pisccar · piscra · pisscar · ppiscar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pecar" and "piscar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/pɨ.ˈkaɾ/ versus /pisˈka(ʁ)/ [pisˈka(h)]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "pecar" or "piscar" show up more?
"piscar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,179 in our Portuguese list, against #32,725 for "pecar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "pecar" and "piscar" 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 "piscar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #17,308 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pecar" and "piscar" 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 #17,308 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