piãovspiscoConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#35,727
“pião” frequency rank
#31,500
“pisco” frequency rank
67227
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pião pisco
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 pequeno, fechado, referido aos olhos

Letter map: pião vs pisco

Shared letters muted; letters that set pião and pisco apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. pião runs 4 letters (CVVV) against pisco's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
pião
5 ch
pisco

Part-of-speech tell for pião / pisco

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: pião is anoun and piscoanadjective. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67227, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pião is recorded at frequency rank #35,727, classified as anoun. pisco is at rank #31,500, tagged as anadj.

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 67227, this pair ranks #4,711 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pião vs pisco

Shared letters: iop. Private to "pião": ã. Private to "pisco": cs.

"pião" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "pisco" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pisco ← ipsco · picso · piscco · pisoc · pissco · ppisco · psico

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pião" and "pisco" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pião" is a noun and "pisco" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pião" or "pisco"?
"pisco" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,500 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.

Useful next steps

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "pião" and "pisco".

  • Full dictionary entry for "pião" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pisco" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #4,711 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pião" and "pisco" 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 #4,711 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