alacenavsalmacenaTell them apart

Quick tell: alacena is a noun, almacena is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“alacena” is a noun and “almacena” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#42,239
“alacena” frequency rank
#25,125
“almacena” frequency rank
67364
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature alacena almacena
Definition Armario hecho en la pared, con puertas y anaqueles, para guardar algunas cosas. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de almacenar.

Where the eye mixes alacena and almacena

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. alacena runs 7 letters (VCVCVCV) against almacena's 8 (VCCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
alacena
8 ch
almacena

Why the eye confuses alacena with almacena

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: alacena is [alaˈsena] while almacena is [almaˈsena]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67364, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

alacena is recorded at frequency rank #42,239, classified as anoun, pronounced [alaˈsena]. almacena is at rank #25,125, tagged as averb, pronounced [almaˈsena].

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 67364, this pair ranks #37,321 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of alacena vs almacena

Shared letters: aceln. Private to "alacena": -. Private to "almacena": m.

"alacena" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVCV  ·  "almacena" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • alacena ← aalcena · alaccena · alacean · alacenna · alacnea · alaecna · alasena · alcaena
  • almacena ← alamcena · allmacena · almaccena · almacean · almacenna · almacnea · almaecna · almasena

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "alacena" for "almacena" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "alacena" is a noun and "almacena" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "alacena" vs "almacena" - which ranks higher?
"almacena" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,125 in our Spanish list, against #42,239 for "alacena". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "alacena" and "almacena" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "alacena" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "almacena" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #37,321 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "alacena" and "almacena" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "alacena vs Azucena". 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 #37,321 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