águilavsaquilaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#8,900
“águila” frequency rank
#48,217
“aquila” frequency rank
57117
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature águila aquila
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. Águila

Where the eye mixes águila and aquila

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. águila and aquila follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
águila
6 ch
aquila

Look-alike desk: águila vs aquila

A purely visual mix-up. águila ([ˈaɣ̞ila]) and aquila ([ˈa.kwi.la]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57117, 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]. aquila is at rank #48,217, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈa.kwi.la].

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 57117, this pair ranks #71,783 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of águila vs aquila

Shared letters: ailu. Private to "águila": . Private to "aquila": q.

"águila" · 6 letters · shape VCVVCV  ·  "aquila" · 6 letters · shape VCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aquilaaqiula · aqquila · aquial · aquilla · aqulia · auqila · qauila

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "águila" and "aquila" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈaɣ̞ila] versus [ˈa.kwi.la]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "águila" or "aquila" show up more?
"águila" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,900 in our Spanish list, against #48,217 for "aquila". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "águila" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aquila" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #71,783 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "águila" and "aquila" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aqueja vs aquila". 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 #71,783 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