peladovspolacoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#17,601
“pelado” frequency rank
#29,088
“polaco” frequency rank
46689
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pelado polaco
Definition sem pelo relativo ou pertencente à Polônia

Where the eye mixes pelado and polaco

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

6 ch
pelado
6 ch
polaco

Visual trap between pelado and polaco

A purely visual mix-up. pelado (/pe.ˈla.du/) and polaco (/po.la."ku/) 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 46689, 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/. polaco is at rank #29,088, tagged as anadj, pronounced /po.la."ku/.

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 46689, this pair ranks #18,620 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pelado vs polaco

Shared letters: alop. Private to "pelado": de. Private to "polaco": c.

"pelado" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "polaco" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pelado ← eplado · pealdo · peladdo · pelaod · peldao · pellado · pleado · ppelado
  • polaco ← oplaco · ploaco · poalco · polacco · polaoc · polcao · pollaco · ppolaco

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pelado" for "polaco" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/pe.ˈla.du/ versus /po.la."ku/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pelado" vs "polaco" - which ranks higher?
"pelado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,601 in our Portuguese list, against #29,088 for "polaco". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pelado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "polaco" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #18,620 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pelado" and "polaco" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "polaco vs Poland". 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 #18,620 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