águilavsanguilasWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#8,900
“águila” frequency rank
#46,326
“anguilas” frequency rank
55226
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature águila anguilas
Definition Cualquiera de las Aves carnívoras pertenecientes a la familia de los Accipitridae, que tiene un pico fuerte en forma de gancho y una visión muy aguda. Forma del plural de anguila.

Where the eye mixes águila and anguilas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. águila runs 6 letters (VCVVCV) against anguilas's 8 (VCCVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
águila
8 ch
anguilas

Why the eye confuses águila with anguilas

A purely visual mix-up. águila ([ˈaɣ̞ila]) and anguilas ([ãŋˈgilas]) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55226, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

águila is recorded at frequency rank #8,900, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈaɣ̞ila]. anguilas is at rank #46,326, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ãŋˈgilas].

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 55226, this pair ranks #79,835 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of águila vs anguilas

Shared letters: agilu. Private to "águila": á. Private to "anguilas": ns.

"águila" · 6 letters · shape VCVVCV  ·  "anguilas" · 8 letters · shape VCCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • anguilasagnuilas · angguilas · angiulas · anguials · anguilass · anguillas · anguilsa · angulias

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "águila" and "anguilas" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈaɣ̞ila] versus [ãŋˈgilas]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "águila" or "anguilas" show up more?
"águila" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,900 in our Spanish list, against #46,326 for "anguilas". 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 "águila" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "anguilas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #79,835 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "águila" and "anguilas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "anguilas vs Anguita". 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 #79,835 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