pegadavspitadaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#10,583
“pegada” frequency rank
#23,448
“pitada” frequency rank
34031
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pegada pitada
Definition vestígio que o pé deixa no solo pequena porção de quaisquer substâncias apresentadas em pó

Where the eye mixes pegada and pitada

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
pegada
6 ch
pitada

Why the eye confuses pegada with pitada

A purely visual mix-up. pegada (/pɛ.ˈɡa.dɐ/) and pitada (/pi.ˈta.dɐ/) 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 34031, 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/. pitada is at rank #23,448, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pi.ˈta.dɐ/.

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 34031, this pair ranks #33,340 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pegada vs pitada

Shared letters: adp. Private to "pegada": eg. Private to "pitada": it.

"pegada" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "pitada" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pegadaepgada · peagda · pegaad · pegadda · pegdaa · peggada · pgeada · ppegada
  • pitadaiptada · piatda · pitaad · pitadda · pitdaa · pittada · ppitada · ptiada

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pegada" for "pitada" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/pɛ.ˈɡa.dɐ/ versus /pi.ˈta.dɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pegada" vs "pitada" - which ranks higher?
"pegada" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,583 in our Portuguese list, against #23,448 for "pitada". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pegada" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pitada" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #33,340 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pegada" and "pitada" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pétala vs pitada". 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 #33,340 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