amigovsapioWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: amigo is a adjective, apio is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“amigo” is an adjective and “apio” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#359
“amigo” frequency rank
#29,034
“apio” frequency rank
29393
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature amigo apio
Definition Que da o recibe un afecto desinteresado (amistad), especialmente si no se basa en lazos de parentesco. (Apium graveolens) Planta anual herbácea, de la familia de las apiáceas, que alcanza 1 m de altura, con tallos gruesos y carnosos, hojas pinnadas o bipinnadas con foliolos en forma de rombo, flores en umbela, de color blanco o amarillento y muy pequeñas, y frutos ovoides de hasta 2 mm de diámetro. Se cultiva desde la Antigüedad por sus pencas comestibles y sus raíces, así como por el aceite esencial que se obtiene de sus frutos

Where the eye mixes amigo and apio

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. amigo runs 5 letters (VCVCV) against apio's 4 (VCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
amigo
4 ch
apio

Look-alike desk: amigo vs apio

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: amigo is [aˈmiɣ̞o] while apio is [ˈapjo]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 29393, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

amigo is recorded at frequency rank #359, classified as anadj, pronounced [aˈmiɣ̞o]. apio is at rank #29,034, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈapjo].

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 29393, this pair ranks #217,229 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of amigo vs apio

Shared letters: aio. Private to "amigo": gm. Private to "apio": p.

"amigo" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "apio" · 4 letters · shape VCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • amigoaimgo · amgio · amiggo · amiog · ammigo · maigo
  • apioaipo · apoi · appio · paio

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "amigo" and "apio" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "amigo" is an adjective and "apio" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "amigo" vs "apio" - which ranks higher?
"amigo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #359 in our Spanish list, against #29,034 for "apio". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "amigo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "apio" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #217,229 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "amigo" and "apio" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "apio vs apis". 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 #217,229 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