pedrãovsPedroWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#41,177
“pedrão” frequency rank
#830
“Pedro” frequency rank
42007
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pedrão Pedro
Definition pedrão grande prenome masculino

Where the eye mixes pedrão and Pedro

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

6 ch
pedrão
5 ch
Pedro

Visual trap between pedrão and Pedro

A purely visual mix-up. pedrão (/pe.'dɾoŋ/) and Pedro (/'pe.dɾu/.) 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 42007, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pedrão is recorded at frequency rank #41,177, classified as anoun, pronounced /pe.'dɾoŋ/. Pedro is at rank #830, tagged as anoun, pronounced /'pe.dɾu/..

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 42007, this pair ranks #23,829 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pedrão vs Pedro

Shared letters: deopr. Private to "pedrão": ã. Private to "Pedro": -.

"pedrão" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV  ·  "Pedro" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • Pedro ← epdro · pdero · peddro · pedor · pedrro · perdo · ppedro

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pedrão" and "Pedro" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/pe.'dɾoŋ/ versus /'pe.dɾu/.) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pedrão" or "Pedro"?
"Pedro" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #830 in our Portuguese list, against #41,177 for "pedrão". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pedrão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Pedro" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #23,829 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pedrão" and "Pedro" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pedrão vs Petro". 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 #23,829 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