Which to use
“pegada” is a noun and “pesado” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,583
- “pegada” frequency rank
- #3,509
- “pesado” frequency rank
- 14092
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pegada | pesado |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | vestígio que o pé deixa no solo | que pesa muito |
Where the eye mixes pegada and pesado
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pegada and pesado follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: pegada vs pesado
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pegada is /pɛ.ˈɡa.dɐ/ while pesado is /pɨ.ˈza.du/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 14092, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pegada is recorded at frequency rank #10,583, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɛ.ˈɡa.dɐ/. 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 14092, this pair ranks #58,089 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of pegada vs pesado
Shared letters: adep. Private to "pegada": g. Private to "pesado": os.
"pegada" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "pesado" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "pegada" and "pesado" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "pegada" or "pesado"?
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 "pegada" 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 #58,089 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pegada" and "pesado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pegada vs pétala". 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 #58,089 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.