perdiçãovspetiçãoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#21,265
“perdição” frequency rank
#7,317
“petição” frequency rank
28582
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature perdição petição
Definition ato de perder documento entregue pelo advogado ao tribunal para dar início a um processo

Where the eye mixes perdição and petição

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. perdição runs 8 letters (CVCCVCVV) against petição's 7 (CVCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
perdição
7 ch
petição

Visual trap between perdição and petição

A purely visual mix-up. perdição (/peɾ.ʤɪ.ˈsãw/) and petição (/pɨ.ti.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) 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 28582, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

perdição is recorded at frequency rank #21,265, classified as anoun, pronounced /peɾ.ʤɪ.ˈsãw/. petição is at rank #7,317, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɨ.ti.ˈsɐ̃w̃/.

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 28582, this pair ranks #40,226 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of perdição vs petição

Shared letters: eiopãç. Private to "perdição": dr. Private to "petição": t.

"perdição" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV  ·  "petição" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "perdição" and "petição" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/peɾ.ʤɪ.ˈsãw/ versus /pɨ.ti.ˈsɐ̃w̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "perdição" or "petição" show up more?
"petição" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,317 in our Portuguese list, against #21,265 for "perdição". 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 "perdição" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "petição" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #40,226 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "perdição" and "petição" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "perdição vs predição". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #40,226 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