pesadavspicadaTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#4,943
“pesada” frequency rank
#14,207
“picada” frequency rank
19150
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pesada picada
Definition feminino do adjetivo pesado golpe dado com pico

Letter map: pesada vs picada

Shared letters muted; letters that set pesada and picada apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. pesada and picada follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
pesada
6 ch
picada

Grammar separator: pesada vs picada

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: pesada is anadjective and picadaanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19150, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pesada is recorded at frequency rank #4,943, classified as anadj. picada is at rank #14,207, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pi.ˈka.dɐ/.

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 19150, this pair ranks #51,660 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pesada vs picada

Shared letters: adp. Private to "pesada": es. Private to "picada": ci.

"pesada" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "picada" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pesada ← peasda · pesaad · pesadda · pesdaa · pessada · ppesada · pseada
  • picada ← ipcada · pciada · piacda · picaad · picadda · piccada · picdaa · ppicada

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pesada" and "picada" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pesada" is an adjective and "picada" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pesada" or "picada"?
"pesada" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,943 in our Portuguese list, against #14,207 for "picada". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "pesada" vs "picada" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pesada" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "picada" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #51,660 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pesada" and "picada" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pescada vs picada". 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 #51,660 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