Which to use
“pelado” and “pesado” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #17,601
- “pelado” frequency rank
- #3,509
- “pesado” frequency rank
- 21110
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | pelado | pesado |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | sem pelo | que pesa muito |
Where the eye mixes pelado and pesado
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. pelado 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: pelado vs pesado
A purely visual mix-up. pelado (/pe.ˈla.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 differ by a single letter - l in “pelado” becomes s in “pesado”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21110, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
pelado is recorded at frequency rank #17,601, classified as anadj, pronounced /pe.ˈla.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 21110, this pair ranks #49,237 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of pelado vs pesado
Shared letters: adeop. Private to "pelado": l. Private to "pesado": s.
"pelado" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "pesado" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "pelado" and "pesado" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "pelado" or "pesado" show up more?
After this comparison
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "pelado" 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 #49,237 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "pelado" and "pesado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pelado 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 #49,237 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.