agenciavsagoníaConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#2,005
“agencia” frequency rank
#14,754
“agonía” frequency rank
16759
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature agencia agonía
Definition Profesión o empleo de agente. Angustia y congoja del moribundo.

Where the eye mixes agencia and agonía

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. agencia runs 7 letters (VCVCCVV) against agonía's 6 (VCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
agencia
6 ch
agonía

Why the eye confuses agencia with agonía

A purely visual mix-up. agencia ([aˈxẽnsja]) and agonía ([aɣ̞oˈnia]) 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 16759, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

agencia is recorded at frequency rank #2,005, classified as anoun, pronounced [aˈxẽnsja]. agonía is at rank #14,754, tagged as anoun, pronounced [aɣ̞oˈnia].

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 16759, this pair ranks #274,877 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of agencia vs agonía

Shared letters: agn. Private to "agencia": cei. Private to "agonía": oí.

"agencia" · 7 letters · shape VCVCCVV  ·  "agonía" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • agencia ← aegncia · agecnia · agencai · agenccia · agenica · agenncia · agensia · aggencia

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "agencia" for "agonía" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([aˈxẽnsja] versus [aɣ̞oˈnia]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "agencia" vs "agonía" - which ranks higher?
"agencia" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,005 in our Spanish list, against #14,754 for "agonía". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "agencia" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "agonía" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #274,877 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "agencia" and "agonía" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "agobio vs agonía". 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 #274,877 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