piãovspicarConfusable pair

Quick tell: pião is a noun, picar is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pião” is a noun and “picar” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#35,727
“pião” frequency rank
#26,144
“picar” frequency rank
61871
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pião picar
Definition brinquedo que consiste em puxar uma corda enrolada a um objeto afunilado, geralmente de madeira ou plástico e com uma ponta de ferro, colocando-o em rotação no solo, mantendo-se erguido dar picadas em

Letter map: pião vs picar

Shared letters muted; letters that set pião and picar apart highlighted. Shared run: 2. pião runs 4 letters (CVVV) against picar's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
pião
5 ch
picar

Role in the sentence - pião and picar

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: pião is anoun and picaraverb. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61871, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pião is recorded at frequency rank #35,727, classified as anoun. picar is at rank #26,144, tagged as averb, pronounced /pi.ˈkaɾ/.

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 61871, this pair ranks #6,933 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pião vs picar

Shared letters: ip. Private to "pião": oã. Private to "picar": acr.

"pião" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "picar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • picar ← ipcar · pciar · piacr · picarr · piccar · picra · ppicar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pião" for "picar" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pião" is a noun and "picar" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "pião" vs "picar" - which ranks higher?
"picar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,144 in our Portuguese list, against #35,727 for "pião". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

You've compared "pião" and "picar". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pião" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "picar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #6,933 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pião" and "picar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pião vs pix". 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 #6,933 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