pesadavspestanaConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#4,943
“pesada” frequency rank
#24,107
“pestana” frequency rank
29050
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pesada pestana
Definition feminino do adjetivo pesado pelo que recobre a pálpebra

Letter map: pesada vs pestana

Shared letters muted; letters that set pesada and pestana apart highlighted. Shared run: 5. pesada runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against pestana's 7 (CVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
pesada
7 ch
pestana

Part-of-speech tell for pesada / pestana

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: pesada is anadjective and pestanaanoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29050, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pesada is recorded at frequency rank #4,943, classified as anadj. pestana is at rank #24,107, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɨʃ.ˈtɐ.nɐ/.

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 29050, this pair ranks #39,684 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pesada vs pestana

Shared letters: aeps. Private to "pesada": d. Private to "pestana": nt.

"pesada" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "pestana" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pesada ← peasda · pesaad · pesadda · pesdaa · pessada · ppesada · pseada
  • pestana ← epstana · pesatna · pesstana · pestaan · pestanna · pestnaa · pesttana · petsana

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pesada" and "pestana" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pesada" is an adjective and "pestana" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pesada" or "pestana"?
"pesada" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,943 in our Portuguese list, against #24,107 for "pestana". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "pesada" and "pestana".

  • Full dictionary entry for "pesada" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pestana" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #39,684 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pesada" and "pestana" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pestana vs pétala". 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 #39,684 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