paella

Name: paella, Spanish Word Data
Creator: Wiktionary
License: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

[paˈeʝa]

/[paˈeʝa]/ noun

By PlainSpell · According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA) · analyzed September 3, 2026

The verdict

“paella” sits in 15 confusable pairs (corpus #26,549) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.

#26,549
frequency rank, Spanish: 6,028
“P” headwords: 4
tracked misspellings: 15
confusable pairs

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Plato cuyos ingredientes básicos son el arroz, el azafrán y el aceite de oliva. Se trata de un sofrito de carne (pollo o conejo), verduras (tomate, judía verde, pimiento), azafrán y aceite, al cual...

Corpus desk

Index ES-paella · paella · Spanish

paella · rank #26,549 · 4 variants · 15 confusables

FREQ-MID #26,549
LEN-LONG 6 letters
VOW-3 3 vowels
CONFUS-MID 15 pairs
VAR-LOW 4 variants
BOOK-DENSE 6,028
PHOTO-FINISH pagano

Nearest frequency peer: pagano (+1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Nogales

73,456
ofreces

73,455
omitir

73,454
paella

73,452
pagano

73,451
palenque

73,449

What this shows Las barras sitúan “paella” frente a los lemas españoles más cercanos por rango, no un reprint del escritorio de confusables.

Visual similarity to commonly confused words

How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).

paella vs pala

67% similar

paella vs pela

67% similar

paella vs pelea

67% similar

Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).

Key facts for paella
Property	Value
Headword	paella
Language	Spanish
Part of speech	Noun
IPA	[paˈeʝa]
Letters	6
Frequency rank	#26,549
Misspellings tracked	4
Confusable pairs	15
Source	Wiktionary (kaikki.org)

Rango de corpus junto a confusables de “paella”

De izquierda a derecha: las pocas palabras que cargan el habla diaria, luego la cola larga casi invisible.paellacae aquí:

#26,549

#1#100#1K#10K#100K

← used constantlyrarely used →

La escala es logarítmica (cada marca ≈ 10× más rara). En la misma franja de rareza aparecen “pagano” (#26,550), “omitir” (#26,547), “ofreces” (#26,546). Entre 6,028 lemas con “P”, “paella” va en #26,549. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Easy to mix with look-alikes

The spelling risk for paella is neighbouring look-alikes ("pala", "pela", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced [paˈeʝa]. Frequency #26,549 among 6,028 “P” headwords. 2 recorded senses keep meaning in play.

Our generated misspelling index lists 4 likely wrong-spelling variants for paella, with forms such as "paelal", "palela", and "pealla". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 15 confusable-pair relationships, "pala", "pela", "pelea", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.

This entry carries no recorded etymology, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct Spanish form is paella, spelled P-A-E-L-L-A.

Definition

1
Plato cuyos ingredientes básicos son el arroz, el azafrán y el aceite de oliva. Se trata de un sofrito de carne (pollo o conejo), verduras (tomate, judía verde, pimiento), azafrán y aceite, al cual se añade agua y tras un tiempo de cocción, se añade el arroz, continuando la cocción hasta que el arroz absorba todo el caldo. Es típico de Valencia, España, pero tiene numerosas versiones alrededor del mundo.
2
Recipiente donde se prepara este plato.

Synonyms

paellera

This word in other languages

paella(English)paella(Français)Paella(Deutsch)

Common misspellings

Also misspelled as:

paelal
palela
pealla
ppaella

Misspelling Pattern Breakdown

How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of paella - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.

Edit distance from "paella"

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

How do you spell "paella"?

"paella" is spelled P-A-E-L-L-A. The IPA pronunciation is [paˈeʝa].

What does "paella" mean?

As a noun, "paella" means: Plato cuyos ingredientes básicos son el arroz, el azafrán y el aceite de oliva. Se trata de un sofrito de carne (pollo o conejo), verduras (tomate, judía verde, pimiento), azafrán y aceite, al cual...

What words are commonly confused with "paella"?

"paella" is commonly confused with "pala", "pela", "pelea". These words look or sound similar but have different meanings. PlainSpell provides detailed comparisons for each pair.

How do you pronounce "paella"?

The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "paella" is [paˈeʝa]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.

What language does "paella" come from?

"paella" is a Spanish word. PlainSpell's reference spans five languages -- English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German -- with definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for each.

Is PlainSpell free to use?

Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar Spanish words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "paella", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked Spanish headwords with 6 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

pagano#26,550 omitir#26,547 pelvis#26,557 memory#26,526