peckvspêloWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#31,091
“peck” frequency rank
#26,526
“pêlo” frequency rank
57617
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature peck pêlo
Definition bicada vide pelo

Where the eye mixes peck and pêlo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 1 letter in sequence. peck (CVCC) and pêlo (CVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
peck
4 ch
pêlo

Visual trap between peck and pêlo

A purely visual mix-up. peck (/pɛk/) and pêlo (/ˈpe.lu/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57617, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

peck is recorded at frequency rank #31,091, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɛk/. pêlo is at rank #26,526, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpe.lu/.

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 57617, this pair ranks #9,224 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of peck vs pêlo

Shared letters: p. Private to "peck": cek. Private to "pêlo": loê.

"peck" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "pêlo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • peck ← epck · pcek · pecck · peckk · pekc · ppeck

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "peck" for "pêlo" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/pɛk/ versus /ˈpe.lu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "peck" or "pêlo" show up more?
"pêlo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,526 in our Portuguese list, against #31,091 for "peck". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "peck" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pêlo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #9,224 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "peck" and "pêlo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pêlo vs pilão". 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 #9,224 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