picadavspicanhaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#14,207
“picada” frequency rank
#39,798
“picanha” frequency rank
54005
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature picada picanha
Definition golpe dado com pico o mesmo que engaço, ancinho

Where the eye mixes picada and picanha

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. picada runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against picanha's 7 (CVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
picada
7 ch
picanha

Look-alike desk: picada vs picanha

A purely visual mix-up. picada (/pi.ˈka.dɐ/) and picanha (/pi.ˈkɐ.ɲɐ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54005, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

picada is recorded at frequency rank #14,207, classified as anoun, pronounced /pi.ˈka.dɐ/. picanha is at rank #39,798, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pi.ˈkɐ.ɲɐ/.

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 54005, this pair ranks #11,626 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of picada vs picanha

Shared letters: acip. Private to "picada": d. Private to "picanha": hn.

"picada" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "picanha" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • picada ← ipcada · pciada · piacda · picaad · picadda · piccada · picdaa · ppicada
  • picanha ← ipcanha · pcianha · piacnha · picahna · picanah · picanhha · picannha · piccanha

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "picada" for "picanha" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/pi.ˈka.dɐ/ versus /pi.ˈkɐ.ɲɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "picada" or "picanha"?
"picada" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,207 in our Portuguese list, against #39,798 for "picanha". 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 "picada" and "picanha" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "picada" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "picanha" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #11,626 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "picada" and "picanha" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "picanha vs pitanga". 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 #11,626 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