pedidovspesadoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,126
“pedido” frequency rank
#3,509
“pesado” frequency rank
4635
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pedido pesado
Definition solicitado que pesa muito

Where the eye mixes pedido and pesado

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pedido and pesado follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
pedido
6 ch
pesado

Why the eye confuses pedido with pesado

A purely visual mix-up. pedido (/pɨ.ˈdi.du/) and pesado (/pɨ.ˈza.du/) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4635, 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/. pesado is at rank #3,509, tagged as anadj, pronounced /pɨ.ˈza.du/.

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 4635, this pair ranks #70,198 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pedido vs pesado

Shared letters: deop. Private to "pedido": i. Private to "pesado": as.

"pedido" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "pesado" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pedido ← epdido · pdeido · peddido · peddio · pediddo · pediod · peiddo · ppedido
  • pesado ← epsado · peasdo · pesaddo · pesaod · pesdao · pessado · ppesado · pseado

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pedido" for "pesado" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/pɨ.ˈdi.du/ versus /pɨ.ˈza.du/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pedido" vs "pesado" - which ranks higher?
"pedido" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,126 in our Portuguese list, against #3,509 for "pesado". 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 "pedido" and "pesado" 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 "pesado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #70,198 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pedido" and "pesado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pesado vs prelado". 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 #70,198 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