penuria

[peˈnuɾja]

/[peˈnuɾja]/ noun

The verdict

“penuria” is uncommon Spanish (frequency #57,997 among 6,028 “P” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#57,997
frequency rank, Spanish
6,028
“P” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Escasez, falta de las cosas esenciales o de una de ellas.

Corpus desk

Index ES-penuria · penuria · Spanish

penuria · rank #57,997 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #57,997
  • LEN-LONG 7 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 6,028
  • PHOTO-FINISH penitentes

Nearest frequency peer: penitentes (-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.

Rangos de cola larga cerca de “penuria”

Banda escasa: las barras invierten el rango para que lo raro se lea más corto

corpus weight

What this shows Vista de cola larga: dónde “penuria” se sitúa frente a rangos españoles igualmente raros.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for penuria
PropertyValue
Headwordpenuria
LanguageSpanish
Part of speechNoun
IPA[peˈnuɾja]
Letters7
Frequency rank#57,997
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Cola larga: rango de “penuria” en español

La frecuencia va del puñado de palabras que usamos sin parar (izquierda) a la cola larga que apenas aparece (derecha).penuriacae en esta cola de rareza:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

Los ticks avanzan en logaritmo; cada uno es del orden de diez veces más raro. Vecinos raros de la misma franja: “penitentes” (#57,996), “percances” (#57,998), “peloteros” (#57,995). Entre 6,028 lemas con “P”, “penuria” va en #57,997. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

penuria is uncommon Spanish at frequency #57,997 among 6,028 “P” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed [peˈnuɾja]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. Gloss: "Escasez, falta de las cosas esenciales o de una de ellas.".

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for penuria, a sign its spelling follows regular Spanish conventions. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since its spelling is unusual enough that it doesn't cluster with a lookalike.

Our source data has no etymology on file for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct Spanish form is penuria, spelled P-E-N-U-R-I-A.

Definition

  1. 1
    Escasez, falta de las cosas esenciales o de una de ellas.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how penuria appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Algunas noches se entretenían en poner en solfa a D. Lope, el cual, al verse en tan gran decadencia, desmintió los hábitos espléndidos de toda su vida, volviéndose algo roñoso. Apremiado por la creciente penuria, regateaba los míseros gastos de la casa, educándose, ¡a buenas horas!, en la administración doméstica, tan disconforme con su caballería

Synonyms

Antonyms

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 "penuria"?
"penuria" is spelled P-E-N-U-R-I-A. The IPA pronunciation is [peˈnuɾja].
What does "penuria" mean?
As a noun, "penuria" means: Escasez, falta de las cosas esenciales o de una de ellas.
How do you pronounce "penuria"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "penuria" is [peˈnuɾja]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "penuria" come from?
"penuria" is a Spanish word. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data for this and other words across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German on PlainSpell.
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 "penuria", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked Spanish headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list