picarvsplacarTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#26,144
“picar” frequency rank
#5,781
“placar” frequency rank
31925
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature picar placar
Definition dar picadas em quadro para registro de pontos alcançados durante uma competição esportiva

Letter map: picar vs placar

Shared letters muted; letters that set picar and placar apart highlighted. Shared run: 4. picar runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against placar's 6 (CCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
picar
6 ch
placar

Role in the sentence - picar and placar

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: picar is averb and placaranoun. On the page they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31925, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

picar is recorded at frequency rank #26,144, classified as averb, pronounced /pi.ˈkaɾ/. placar is at rank #5,781, tagged as anoun.

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 31925, this pair ranks #36,012 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of picar vs placar

Shared letters: acpr. Private to "picar": i. Private to "placar": l.

"picar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "placar" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • picar ← ipcar · pciar · piacr · picarr · piccar · picra · ppicar
  • placar ← lpacar · palcar · plaacr · placarr · placcar · placra · plcaar · pllacar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "picar" and "placar" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "picar" is a verb and "placar" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "picar" or "placar"?
"placar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,781 in our Portuguese list, against #26,144 for "picar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "picar" vs "placar" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "picar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "placar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #36,012 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "picar" and "placar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "picar vs pilão". 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 #36,012 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