picovspoçosWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#6,685
“pico” frequency rank
#11,936
“poços” frequency rank
18621
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pico poços
Definition cume aguçado plural de poço

Where the eye mixes pico and poços

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. pico runs 4 letters (CVCV) against poços's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
pico
5 ch
poços

Visual trap between pico and poços

A purely visual mix-up. pico (/ˈpi.ku/) and poços (/ˈpɔ.sus/) 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 18621, 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/. poços is at rank #11,936, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɔ.sus/.

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 18621, this pair ranks #52,326 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pico vs poços

Shared letters: op. Private to "pico": ci. Private to "poços": sç.

"pico" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "poços" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pico ← ipco · pcio · picco · pioc · ppico

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pico" and "poços" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpi.ku/ versus /ˈpɔ.sus/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "pico" or "poços" show up more?
"pico" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,685 in our Portuguese list, against #11,936 for "poços". 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 "poços" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #52,326 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pico" and "poços" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poços vs pomo". 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 #52,326 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