picadavspijamaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#14,207
“picada” frequency rank
#12,518
“pijama” frequency rank
26725
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature picada pijama
Definition golpe dado com pico vestuário para dormir

Where the eye mixes picada and pijama

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. picada and pijama follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
picada
6 ch
pijama

Why the eye confuses picada with pijama

A purely visual mix-up. picada (/pi.ˈka.dɐ/) and pijama (/pi.ˈʒɐ.mɐ/) 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 26725, 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/. pijama is at rank #12,518, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pi.ˈʒɐ.mɐ/.

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 26725, this pair ranks #42,368 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of picada vs pijama

Shared letters: aip. Private to "picada": cd. Private to "pijama": jm.

"picada" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "pijama" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • picada ← ipcada · pciada · piacda · picaad · picadda · piccada · picdaa · ppicada
  • pijama ← ipjama · piajma · pijaam · pijamma · pijjama · pijmaa · pjiama · ppijama

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "picada" for "pijama" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/pi.ˈka.dɐ/ versus /pi.ˈʒɐ.mɐ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "picada" vs "pijama" - which ranks higher?
"pijama" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,518 in our Portuguese list, against #14,207 for "picada". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "picada" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pijama" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #42,368 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "picada" and "pijama" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pescada vs picada". 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 #42,368 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