pesadovspreladoWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#3,509
“pesado” frequency rank
#48,068
“prelado” frequency rank
51577
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pesado prelado
Definition que pesa muito título honorífico de dignitário eclesiástico; bispo; abade mitrado

Where the eye mixes pesado and prelado

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

6 ch
pesado
7 ch
prelado

Visual trap between pesado and prelado

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pesado is /pɨ.ˈza.du/ while prelado is /pɾɨ.ˈla.du/. 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 51577, 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/. prelado is at rank #48,068, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɾɨ.ˈla.du/.

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 51577, this pair ranks #13,485 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pesado vs prelado

Shared letters: adeop. Private to "pesado": s. Private to "prelado": lr.

"pesado" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "prelado" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pesadoepsado · peasdo · pesaddo · pesaod · pesdao · pessado · ppesado · pseado
  • preladoperlado · pprelado · prealdo · preladdo · prelaod · preldao · prellado · prleado

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pesado" for "prelado" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pesado" is an adjective and "prelado" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "pesado" vs "prelado" - which ranks higher?
"pesado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,509 in our Portuguese list, against #48,068 for "prelado". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pesado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prelado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #13,485 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pesado" and "prelado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pelado vs prelado". 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 #13,485 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