pes vs peste, What's the Difference?

Which to use

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

#23,445
“pes” frequency rank: #10,061
“peste” frequency rank: 33506
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature	pes	peste
Definition	cão	epidemia grave

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set pes and peste apart are highlighted. They share 3 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

3 ch

pes

5 ch

peste

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. pes (/ˈpɛs ouvir^(fonte ?)) and peste (/ˈpɛʃ.tɨ/) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “pes” sits inside “peste”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33506, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pes is recorded at frequency rank #23,445, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɛs ouvir^(fonte ?). peste is at rank #10,061, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɛʃ.tɨ/.

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 33506, this pair ranks #33,999 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pes vs peste

Shared letters: eps. Private to "pes": -. Private to "peste": t.

"pes" · 3 letters · shape CVC · "peste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

peste ← epste · peset · pesste · pestte · petse · ppeste · psete

Frequency comparison

pes#23,445

peste#10,061

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pes" and "peste" be used interchangeably?

No. They are said differently (/ˈpɛs ouvir^(fonte ?) versus /ˈpɛʃ.tɨ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.

Which is more common, "pes" or "peste"?

"peste" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,061 in our Portuguese list, against #23,445 for "pes". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering pes vs peste

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

Read both glosses above and match the meaning you intend, only context separates this pair.
See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “pes” entry
Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable