pedevspenteWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#1,581
“pede” frequency rank
#16,363
“pente” frequency rank
17944
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pede pente
Definition objeto usado para pentear o cabelo

Where the eye mixes pede and pente

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
pede
5 ch
pente

Look-alike desk: pede vs pente

A purely visual mix-up. pede (/ˈpe.de/) and pente (/ˈpẽ.tɨ/) 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 17944, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pede is recorded at frequency rank #1,581, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpe.de/. pente is at rank #16,363, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpẽ.tɨ/.

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 17944, this pair ranks #53,170 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pede vs pente

Shared letters: ep. Private to "pede": d. Private to "pente": nt.

"pede" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "pente" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pedeepde · pdee · pedde · peed · ppede
  • penteepnte · penet · pennte · pentte · petne · pnete · ppente

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pede" and "pente" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpe.de/ versus /ˈpẽ.tɨ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pede" vs "pente" - which ranks higher?
"pede" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,581 in our Portuguese list, against #16,363 for "pente". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pede" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pente" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #53,170 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pede" and "pente" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pedinte vs pente". 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 #53,170 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