picovspuloConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#6,685
“pico” frequency rank
#16,593
“pulo” frequency rank
23278
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pico pulo
Definition cume aguçado ato de pular; salto pequeno

Where the eye mixes pico and pulo

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

4 ch
pico
4 ch
pulo

Visual trap between pico and pulo

A purely visual mix-up. pico (/ˈpi.ku/) and pulo (/ˈpu.lu/) 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 23278, 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/. pulo is at rank #16,593, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpu.lu/.

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 23278, this pair ranks #46,577 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pico vs pulo

Shared letters: op. Private to "pico": ci. Private to "pulo": lu.

"pico" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "pulo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • picoipco · pcio · picco · pioc · ppico
  • pulopluo · ppulo · pullo · puol · uplo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pico" and "pulo" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently (/ˈpi.ku/ versus /ˈpu.lu/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pico" or "pulo"?
"pico" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,685 in our Portuguese list, against #16,593 for "pulo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "pico" and "pulo" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pico" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pulo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #46,577 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pico" and "pulo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Pluto vs pulo". 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 #46,577 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