algavsaltaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#34,872
“alga” frequency rank
#667
“alta” frequency rank
35539
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature alga alta
Definition Organismo acuático autótrofo —es decir, capaz de fotosíntesis—, sea procarionte o eucarionte. No forman un grupo taxonómico homogéneo, comprendiendo desde organismos unicelulares muy sencillos hasta enormes colonias de decenas de metros de longitud. Se clasifican en al menos nueve filos, de uno de los cuales proceden evolutivamente las plantas propiamente dichas. En los hospitales, orden informada al enfermo a quien se da por sano, para regresar a su vida normal.

Where the eye mixes alga and alta

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
alga
4 ch
alta

Visual trap between alga and alta

A purely visual mix-up. alga ([ˈalɣ̞a]) and alta ([ˈal̪t̪a]) 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 a single letter - g in “alga” becomes t in “alta”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35539, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

alga is recorded at frequency rank #34,872, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈalɣ̞a]. alta is at rank #667, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈal̪t̪a].

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 35539, this pair ranks #185,526 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of alga vs alta

Shared letters: al. Private to "alga": g. Private to "alta": t.

"alga" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "alta" · 4 letters · shape VCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • algaalag · algga · allga · laga
  • altaalat · allta · altta · atla

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "alga" for "alta" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈalɣ̞a] versus [ˈal̪t̪a]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "alga" or "alta"?
"alta" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #667 in our Spanish list, against #34,872 for "alga". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "alga" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "alta" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #185,526 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "alga" and "alta" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "alga vs anta". 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 #185,526 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