apenas
[aˈpenas]
The verdict
“apenas” is in the everyday core of Spanish, ranked #930 in Spanish word frequency and used as an adverb.
- #930
- frequency rank, Spanish
- 6
- letters
- 8
- tracked misspellings
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - En muy poca proporción o intensidad; difícilmente; casi no.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | apenas |
| Language | Spanish |
| Part of speech | Adverb |
| IPA | [aˈpenas] |
| Letters | 6 |
| Frequency rank | #930 |
| Misspellings tracked | 8 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “apenas” sits in Spanish frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The Spanish entry for apenas is 6 letters long, classified as an adverb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [aˈpenas]. Corpus data places it at rank #930 in overall Spanish word frequency, putting it firmly in the everyday core of the language. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "En muy poca proporción o intensidad; difícilmente; casi no.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 8 likely wrong-spelling variants for apenas, with forms such as "aepnas", "apeans", and "apenass". Each of these forms differs from the correct spelling by one small edit: a doubled letter, a dropped silent letter, or a substituted vowel. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "áreas", "arena", "avena", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
Wiktionary doesn't record an etymology for this headword, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct Spanish form is apenas, spelled A-P-E-N-A-S.
Definition
- 1En muy poca proporción o intensidad; difícilmente; casi no.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: aepnas,apeans,apenass,apennas,apensa,apneas,appenas,paenas
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of apenas - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 Spanish corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “apenas”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Spanish spelling is A-P-E-N-A-S - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [aˈpenas] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “áreas” - see the side-by-side comparison. apenas vs áreas
- Browse more Spanish words and confusable pairs in the same reference. Spanish words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.