perigosovsperíodoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: perigoso is a adjective, período is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“perigoso” is an adjective and “período” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#3,634
“perigoso” frequency rank
#540
“período” frequency rank
4174
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature perigoso período
Definition arriscado intervalo de tempo decorrido entre dois momentos, acontecimentos ou datas

Where the eye mixes perigoso and período

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. perigoso runs 8 letters (CVCVCVCV) against período's 7 (CVCVVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
perigoso
7 ch
período

Look-alike desk: perigoso vs período

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: perigoso is /pɨ.ɾi.ˈɡo.zu/ while período is [p(ɨ)ɾi'uðu] (nunca de acordo com a grafia: [p(ɨ)'ɾiwðu]). Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4174, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

perigoso is recorded at frequency rank #3,634, classified as anadj, pronounced /pɨ.ɾi.ˈɡo.zu/. período is at rank #540, tagged as anoun, pronounced [p(ɨ)ɾi'uðu] (nunca de acordo com a grafia: [p(ɨ)'ɾiwðu]).

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 4174, this pair ranks #70,819 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of perigoso vs período

Shared letters: eopr. Private to "perigoso": gis. Private to "período": dí.

"perigoso" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV  ·  "período" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • perigoso ← eprigoso · peirgoso · pergioso · periggoso · perigoos · perigosso · perigsoo · periogso

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "perigoso" for "período" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "perigoso" is an adjective and "período" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "perigoso" or "período" show up more?
"período" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #540 in our Portuguese list, against #3,634 for "perigoso". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "perigoso" and "período" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "perigoso" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "período" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #70,819 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "perigoso" and "período" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "período vs périplo". 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 #70,819 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