Which to use
“peste” is a noun and “poente” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #10,061
- “peste” frequency rank
- #28,325
- “poente” frequency rank
- 38386
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | peste | poente |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | epidemia grave | que põe ou se põe, especialmente no caso do Sol |
Where the eye mixes peste and poente
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. peste runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against poente's 6 (CVVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between peste and poente
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: peste is /ˈpɛʃ.tɨ/ while poente is /ˈpwẽ.tɨ/. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38386, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
peste is recorded at frequency rank #10,061, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɛʃ.tɨ/. poente is at rank #28,325, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈpwẽ.tɨ/.
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 38386, this pair ranks #28,089 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of peste vs poente
Shared letters: ept. Private to "peste": s. Private to "poente": no.
"peste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV · "poente" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "peste" for "poente" ever safe?
Frequency check: "peste" vs "poente" - which ranks higher?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "peste" and "poente" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "peste" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "poente" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #28,089 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "peste" and "poente" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poente vs pont". 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 #28,089 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.