petiçãovspoéticoTell them apart

Quick tell: petição is a noun, poético is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#7,317
“petição” frequency rank
#19,245
“poético” frequency rank
26562
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature petição poético
Definition documento entregue pelo advogado ao tribunal para dar início a um processo relativo à poesia ou que a inspira

Where the eye mixes petição and poético

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. petição (CVCVCVV) and poético (CVVCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
petição
7 ch
poético

Look-alike desk: petição vs poético

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: petição is /pɨ.ti.ˈsɐ̃w̃/ while poético is /ˈpwɛ.ti.ku/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 5 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26562, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

petição is recorded at frequency rank #7,317, classified as anoun, pronounced /pɨ.ti.ˈsɐ̃w̃/. poético is at rank #19,245, tagged as anadj, pronounced /ˈpwɛ.ti.ku/.

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 26562, this pair ranks #42,584 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of petição vs poético

Shared letters: iopt. Private to "petição": eãç. Private to "poético": cé.

"petição" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV  ·  "poético" · 7 letters · shape CVVCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "petição" for "poético" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "petição" is a noun and "poético" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "petição" or "poético"?
"petição" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,317 in our Portuguese list, against #19,245 for "poético". 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 "petição" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "poético" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #42,584 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "petição" and "poético" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poético vs profético". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #42,584 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