ría
[ˈria]
The verdict
“ría” is a moderately-common Spanish word, ranked #16,450 in Spanish word frequency and used as a noun.
- #16,450
- frequency rank, Spanish
- 3
- letters
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Parte de mar que se interna tierra adentro en una cuenca fluvial.
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 | ría |
| Language | Spanish |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | [ˈria] |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #16,450 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “ría” sits in Spanish frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The Spanish entry for ría is 3 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ˈria]. Corpus data places it at rank #16,450 in overall Spanish word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 3 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
The misspelling generator found no plausible variants for ría, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "ro", "rr", "RM", 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 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 ría, spelled R-Í-A.
Definition
- 1Parte de mar que se interna tierra adentro en una cuenca fluvial.
- 2Accidente geomorfológico que designa una de las formas que puede adoptar la desembocadura de un río, cuando un valle costero queda sumergido bajo el mar por una elevación de su nivel. Es un brazo de mar que se interna en la costa y que está sometido a la acción de las mareas.
- 3Obstáculo artificial usado en algunas competiciones deportivas y que consiste en una balsa de agua colocada tras una valla.
Synonyms
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 “ría”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Spanish spelling is R-Í-A - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [ˈria] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “ro” - see the side-by-side comparison. ría vs ro
- 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.