pestevsponteConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#10,061
“peste” frequency rank
#1,859
“ponte” frequency rank
11920
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature peste ponte
Definition epidemia grave construção que liga dois locais separados por superfície líquida ou por depressão

Where the eye mixes peste and ponte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
peste
5 ch
ponte

Visual trap between peste and ponte

A purely visual mix-up. peste (/ˈpɛʃ.tɨ/) and ponte (/ˈpõw.tʃi/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11920, 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/. ponte is at rank #1,859, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpõw.tʃi/.

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 11920, this pair ranks #60,817 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of peste vs ponte

Shared letters: ept. Private to "peste": s. Private to "ponte": no.

"peste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "ponte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pesteepste · peset · pesste · pestte · petse · ppeste · psete
  • ponteopnte · pnote · ponet · ponnte · pontte · potne · pponte

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "peste" and "ponte" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpɛʃ.tɨ/ versus /ˈpõw.tʃi/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "peste" vs "ponte" - which ranks higher?
"ponte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,859 in our Portuguese list, against #10,061 for "peste". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "peste" and "ponte" 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 "ponte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #60,817 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "peste" and "ponte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peste vs petty". 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 #60,817 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