pesadovspescadaTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#3,509
“pesado” frequency rank
#45,991
“pescada” frequency rank
49500
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pesado pescada
Definition que pesa muito peixe teleósteo da família dos Gadíneos muito apreciado

Where the eye mixes pesado and pescada

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. pesado runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against pescada's 7 (CVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
pesado
7 ch
pescada

Look-alike desk: pesado vs pescada

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pesado is /pɨ.ˈza.du/ while pescada is /pɨʃ.ˈka.dɐ/. 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 49500, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pesado is recorded at frequency rank #3,509, classified as anadj, pronounced /pɨ.ˈza.du/. pescada is at rank #45,991, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɨʃ.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 49500, this pair ranks #15,501 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pesado vs pescada

Shared letters: adeps. Private to "pesado": o. Private to "pescada": c.

"pesado" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "pescada" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pesado ← epsado · peasdo · pesaddo · pesaod · pesdao · pessado · ppesado · pseado
  • pescada ← epscada · pecsada · pesacda · pescaad · pescadda · pesccada · pescdaa · pesscada

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pesado" and "pescada" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pesado" is an adjective and "pescada" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "pesado" or "pescada" show up more?
"pesado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,509 in our Portuguese list, against #45,991 for "pescada". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pesado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pescada" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #15,501 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pesado" and "pescada" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pescada vs pescado". 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 #15,501 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