ñ
[ˈeɲe]
The verdict
“ñ” is a moderately-common Spanish word, ranked #22,913 in Spanish word frequency and used as a character.
- #22,913
- frequency rank, Spanish
- 1
- letter
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Decimoquinta letra del alfabeto español y duodécima consonante. Su nombre es eñe: y representa el fonema consonántico nasal palatal.
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 | ñ |
| Language | Spanish |
| Part of speech | Character |
| IPA | [ˈeɲe] |
| Letters | 1 |
| Frequency rank | #22,913 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ñ” sits in Spanish frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The Spanish entry for ñ is 1 letters long, classified as a character, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ˈeɲe]. Corpus data places it at rank #22,913 in overall Spanish word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Decimoquinta letra del alfabeto español y duodécima consonante. Su nombre es eñe: y representa el fonema consonántico nasal palatal.".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for ñ, since its letter pattern doesn't lend itself to common typo substitutions. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "no", "ne", "ny", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so its spelling pattern is best understood through pronunciation rather than a traceable origin. The correct Spanish form is ñ, spelled Ñ.
Definition
- 1Decimoquinta letra del alfabeto español y duodécima consonante. Su nombre es eñe: y representa el fonema consonántico nasal palatal.
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 “ñ”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Spanish spelling is Ñ - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [ˈeɲe] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “no” - see the side-by-side comparison. ñ vs no
- 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.