perdavsperdãoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,548
“perda” frequency rank
#3,278
“perdão” frequency rank
4826
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature perda perdão
Definition ato de perder fim de uma exigência

Where the eye mixes perda and perdão

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
perda
6 ch
perdão

Look-alike desk: perda vs perdão

A purely visual mix-up. perda (/ˈpeɾ.dɐ/) and perdão (/pɨɾ.ˈdɐ̃w̃/) 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 4826, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

perda is recorded at frequency rank #1,548, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpeɾ.dɐ/. perdão is at rank #3,278, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɨɾ.ˈdɐ̃w̃/.

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 4826, this pair ranks #69,948 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of perda vs perdão

Shared letters: depr. Private to "perda": a. Private to "perdão": .

"perda" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "perdão" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perdaeprda · perad · perdda · perrda · pperda · preda

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "perda" for "perdão" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpeɾ.dɐ/ versus /pɨɾ.ˈdɐ̃w̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "perda" vs "perdão" - which ranks higher?
"perda" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,548 in our Portuguese list, against #3,278 for "perdão". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "perda" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "perdão" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #69,948 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "perda" and "perdão" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pedrão vs perdão". 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 #69,948 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