pescadavspicadaTell them apart

Which to use

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

#45,991
“pescada” frequency rank
#14,207
“picada” frequency rank
60198
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pescada picada
Definition peixe teleósteo da família dos Gadíneos muito apreciado golpe dado com pico

Where the eye mixes pescada and picada

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

7 ch
pescada
6 ch
picada

Why the eye confuses pescada with picada

A purely visual mix-up. pescada (/pɨʃ.ˈka.dɐ/) and picada (/pi.ˈka.dɐ/) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60198, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pescada is recorded at frequency rank #45,991, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɨʃ.ˈka.dɐ/. 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 60198, this pair ranks #7,779 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pescada vs picada

Shared letters: acdp. Private to "pescada": es. Private to "picada": i.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pescada ← epscada · pecsada · pesacda · pescaad · pescadda · pesccada · pescdaa · pesscada
  • picada ← ipcada · pciada · piacda · picaad · picadda · piccada · picdaa · ppicada

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pescada" and "picada" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/pɨʃ.ˈka.dɐ/ versus /pi.ˈka.dɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pescada" or "picada"?
"picada" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,207 in our Portuguese list, against #45,991 for "pescada". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pescada" 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 #7,779 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pescada" and "picada" 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 #7,779 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