abedvsaceWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: abed is a adverb, ace is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“abed” is an adverb and “ace” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,164
“abed” frequency rank
#16,245
“ace” frequency rank
64409
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature abed ace
Definition en cama, acostado En el tenis y otros deportes similares, y en el vóley, tanto que se gana con el saque y sin que el rival pueda tocar la pelota.

Where the eye mixes abed and ace

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
abed
3 ch
ace

Look-alike desk: abed vs ace

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: abed is /əˈbed/ while ace is [ˈase]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adverb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64409, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

abed is recorded at frequency rank #48,164, classified as anadv, pronounced /əˈbed/. ace is at rank #16,245, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈase].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 64409, this pair ranks #45,696 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of abed vs ace

Shared letters: ae. Private to "abed": bd. Private to "ace": c.

"abed" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "ace" · 3 letters · shape VCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • abedabbed · abde · abedd · aebd · aved · baed

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "abed" for "ace" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "abed" is an adverb and "ace" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "abed" or "ace" show up more?
"ace" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,245 in our Spanish list, against #48,164 for "abed". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "abed" and "ace" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "abed" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ace" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #45,696 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "abed" and "ace" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "abed vs abeto". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #45,696 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list