pedidovsperíodoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: pedido is a adjective, período is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pedido” is an adjective and “período” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,126
“pedido” frequency rank
#540
“período” frequency rank
1666
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pedido período
Definition solicitado intervalo de tempo decorrido entre dois momentos, acontecimentos ou datas

Where the eye mixes pedido and período

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pedido runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against período's 7 (CVCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
pedido
7 ch
período

Why the eye confuses pedido with período

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pedido is /pɨ.ˈdi.du/ while período is [p(ɨ)ɾi'uðu] (nunca de acordo com a grafia: [p(ɨ)'ɾiwðu]). Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 1666, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pedido is recorded at frequency rank #1,126, classified as anadj, pronounced /pɨ.ˈdi.du/. período is at rank #540, tagged as anoun, pronounced [p(ɨ)ɾi'uðu] (nunca de acordo com a grafia: [p(ɨ)'ɾiwðu]).

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 1666, this pair ranks #73,855 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pedido vs período

Shared letters: deop. Private to "pedido": i. Private to "período": rí.

"pedido" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "período" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pedido ← epdido · pdeido · peddido · peddio · pediddo · pediod · peiddo · ppedido

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pedido" for "período" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pedido" is an adjective and "período" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "pedido" vs "período" - which ranks higher?
"período" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #540 in our Portuguese list, against #1,126 for "pedido". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pedido" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "período" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #73,855 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pedido" and "período" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "período vs périplo". 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 #73,855 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