Which to use
“adhesión” is a noun and “adhesivo” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,156
- “adhesión” frequency rank
- #46,303
- “adhesivo” frequency rank
- 57459
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | adhesión | adhesivo |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Acción o efecto de adherir o adherirse; unión física entre cosas, proceso y resultado de pegarse dos o más elementos. | Que tiene la propiedad o es capaz de adherirse. |
Where the eye mixes adhesión and adhesivo
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. adhesión (VCCVCVVC) and adhesivo (VCCVCVCV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between adhesión and adhesivo
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: adhesión is [að̞eˈsjõn] while adhesivo is [að̞eˈsiβ̞o]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57459, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
adhesión is recorded at frequency rank #11,156, classified as anoun, pronounced [að̞eˈsjõn]. adhesivo is at rank #46,303, tagged as anadj, pronounced [að̞eˈsiβ̞o].
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 57459, this pair ranks #70,433 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of adhesión vs adhesivo
Shared letters: adehis. Private to "adhesión": nó. Private to "adhesivo": ov.
"adhesión" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVVC · "adhesivo" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- adhesivo ← addhesivo · adehsivo · adhecivo · adheisvo · adhesibo · adhesiov · adhesivvo · adhessivo
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "adhesión" and "adhesivo" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary Spanish text, does "adhesión" or "adhesivo" show up more?
Useful next steps
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "adhesión" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "adhesivo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #70,433 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "adhesión" and "adhesivo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "adhesiva vs adhesivo". 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 #70,433 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.