picovspoçoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#6,685
“pico” frequency rank
#5,129
“poço” frequency rank
11814
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pico poço
Definition cume aguçado buraco fundo, geralmente circular, cavado no chão, com o objetivo de encontrar água

Where the eye mixes pico and poço

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
pico
4 ch
poço

Look-alike desk: pico vs poço

A purely visual mix-up. pico (/ˈpi.ku/) and poço (/ˈpo.su/) 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 11814, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pico is recorded at frequency rank #6,685, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈpi.ku/. poço is at rank #5,129, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpo.su/.

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 11814, this pair ranks #60,951 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pico vs poço

Shared letters: op. Private to "pico": ci. Private to "poço": ç.

"pico" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "poço" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • picoipco · pcio · picco · pioc · ppico

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pico" and "poço" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpi.ku/ versus /ˈpo.su/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pico" vs "poço" - which ranks higher?
"poço" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,129 in our Portuguese list, against #6,685 for "pico". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pico" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "poço" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #60,951 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pico" and "poço" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pico 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 #60,951 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