pilãovspiscoConfusable pair

Quick tell: pilão is a noun, pisco is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pilão” is a noun and “pisco” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#45,522
“pilão” frequency rank
#31,500
“pisco” frequency rank
77022
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pilão pisco
Definition mão do almofariz pequeno, fechado, referido aos olhos

Letter map: pilão vs pisco

Shared letters muted; letters that set pilão and pisco apart highlighted. Shared run: 3. pilão (CVCVV) and pisco (CVCCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
pilão
5 ch
pisco

Part-of-speech tell for pilão / pisco

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: pilão is anoun and piscoanadjective. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77022, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pilão is recorded at frequency rank #45,522, classified as anoun, pronounced /pi.ˈlɐ̃w̃/. pisco is at rank #31,500, tagged as anadj.

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 77022, this pair ranks #1,978 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pilão vs pisco

Shared letters: iop. Private to "pilão": lã. Private to "pisco": cs.

"pilão" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "pisco" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pisco ← ipsco · picso · piscco · pisoc · pissco · ppisco · psico

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pilão" and "pisco" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pilão" is a noun and "pisco" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pilão" or "pisco"?
"pisco" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,500 in our Portuguese list, against #45,522 for "pilão". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pair "pilão" vs "pisco" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pilão" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pisco" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #1,978 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pilão" and "pisco" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pilão vs platô". 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 #1,978 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