pêlovspisoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#26,526
“pêlo” frequency rank
#5,780
“piso” frequency rank
32306
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pêlo piso
Definition vide pelo modo de pisar ou andar

Where the eye mixes pêlo and piso

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
pêlo
4 ch
piso

Visual trap between pêlo and piso

A purely visual mix-up. pêlo (/ˈpe.lu/) and piso (/ˈpi.zu/) 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 32306, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pêlo is recorded at frequency rank #26,526, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpe.lu/. piso is at rank #5,780, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpi.zu/.

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 32306, this pair ranks #35,531 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pêlo vs piso

Shared letters: op. Private to "pêlo": . Private to "piso": is.

"pêlo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "piso" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pisoipso · pisso · ppiso · psio

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pêlo" and "piso" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpe.lu/ versus /ˈpi.zu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pêlo" or "piso"?
"piso" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,780 in our Portuguese list, against #26,526 for "pêlo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pêlo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "piso" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #35,531 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pêlo" and "piso" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pêlo vs pilão". 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 #35,531 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