Which to use
“penha” and “pinhão” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #7,960
- “penha” frequency rank
- #31,497
- “pinhão” frequency rank
- 39457
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | penha | pinhão |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | rocha, pedra grande na superfície da terra ou do mar | o fruto do pinheiro-manso |
Where the eye mixes penha and pinhão
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. penha runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against pinhão's 6 (CVCCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: penha vs pinhão
A purely visual mix-up. penha (/ˈpɐj.ɲɐ/) and pinhão (/pi.ˈɲɐ̃w̃/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39457, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
penha is recorded at frequency rank #7,960, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɐj.ɲɐ/. pinhão is at rank #31,497, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pi.ˈɲɐ̃w̃/.
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 39457, this pair ranks #26,781 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of penha vs pinhão
Shared letters: hnp. Private to "penha": ae. Private to "pinhão": ioã.
"penha" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "pinhão" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- penha ← epnha · pehna · penah · penhha · pennha · pneha · ppenha
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "penha" and "pinhão" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "penha" or "pinhão" 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 "penha" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pinhão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #26,781 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "penha" and "pinhão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pilão vs pinhão". 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 #26,781 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.