peravspoeiraWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#18,669
“pera” frequency rank
#6,921
“poeira” frequency rank
25590
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pera poeira
Definition o fruto da pereira quantidade de pequenas partículas de variadas origens, estruturas e composições, que se depositam a partir da suspensão pelo ar

Letter map: pera vs poeira

Shared letters muted; letters that set pera and poeira apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. pera runs 4 letters (CVCV) against poeira's 6 (CVVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
pera
6 ch
poeira

Spelling & dictionary notes on pera vs poeira

pera and poeira are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25590, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pera is recorded at frequency rank #18,669, classified as anoun. poeira is at rank #6,921, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpwɐj.ɾɐ/.

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 25590, this pair ranks #43,710 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pera vs poeira

Shared letters: aepr. Private to "pera": -. Private to "poeira": io.

"pera" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "poeira" · 6 letters · shape CVVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pera ← epra · pear · perra · ppera · prea
  • poeira ← opeira · peoira · poeiar · poeirra · poeria · poiera · ppoeira

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pera" for "poeira" ever safe?
No. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "pera" or "poeira" show up more?
"poeira" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,921 in our Portuguese list, against #18,669 for "pera". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

You've compared "pera" and "poeira". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pera" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "poeira" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #43,710 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pera" and "poeira" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pera vs Pietra". 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 #43,710 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