acciónvsadiciónConfusable pair

Which to use

“acción” and “adición” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#639
“acción” frequency rank
#12,747
“adición” frequency rank
13386
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acción adición
Definition Acto de llevar a cabo algo; desgaste de energía que produce unos resultados. Acción o efecto de sumar, añadir, agregar o adicionar.

Where the eye mixes acción and adición

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. acción runs 6 letters (VCCVVC) against adición's 7 (VCVCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
acción
7 ch
adición

Look-alike desk: acción vs adición

A purely visual mix-up. acción ([akˈsjõn]) and adición ([að̞iˈsjõn]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13386, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

acción is recorded at frequency rank #639, classified as anoun, pronounced [akˈsjõn]. adición is at rank #12,747, tagged as anoun, pronounced [að̞iˈsjõn].

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 13386, this pair ranks #288,057 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of acción vs adición

Shared letters: acinó. Private to "acción": -. Private to "adición": d.

"acción" · 6 letters · shape VCCVVC  ·  "adición" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "acción" for "adición" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([akˈsjõn] versus [að̞iˈsjõn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "acción" or "adición" show up more?
"acción" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #639 in our Spanish list, against #12,747 for "adición". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "acción" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "adición" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #288,057 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "acción" and "adición" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "adición vs adiciones". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #288,057 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