amigovsávidoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#359
“amigo” frequency rank
#35,837
“ávido” frequency rank
36196
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature amigo ávido
Definition Que da o recibe un afecto desinteresado (amistad), especialmente si no se basa en lazos de parentesco. Que siente un fuerte e intenso deseo de conseguir o hacer algo.

Where the eye mixes amigo and ávido

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. amigo and ávido follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
amigo
5 ch
ávido

Look-alike desk: amigo vs ávido

A purely visual mix-up. amigo ([aˈmiɣ̞o]) and ávido ([ˈaβ̞ið̞o]) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36196, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

amigo is recorded at frequency rank #359, classified as anadj, pronounced [aˈmiɣ̞o]. ávido is at rank #35,837, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈaβ̞ið̞o].

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 36196, this pair ranks #181,932 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of amigo vs ávido

Shared letters: io. Private to "amigo": agm. Private to "ávido": dvá.

"amigo" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "ávido" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • amigo ← aimgo · amgio · amiggo · amiog · ammigo · maigo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "amigo" for "ávido" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([aˈmiɣ̞o] versus [ˈaβ̞ið̞o]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "amigo" or "ávido"?
"amigo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #359 in our Spanish list, against #35,837 for "ávido". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "amigo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ávido" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #181,932 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "amigo" and "ávido" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "alió vs ávido". 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 #181,932 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