apevsapioWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#45,736
“ape” frequency rank
#29,034
“apio” frequency rank
74770
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ape apio
Definition Espalda. (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 ape and apio

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. ape runs 3 letters (VCV) against apio's 4 (VCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
ape
4 ch
apio

Visual trap between ape and apio

A purely visual mix-up. ape ([aˈpe]) and apio ([ˈapjo]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74770, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ape is recorded at frequency rank #45,736, classified as anoun, pronounced [aˈpe]. 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 74770, this pair ranks #20,722 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ape vs apio

Shared letters: ap. Private to "ape": e. Private to "apio": io.

"ape" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "apio" · 4 letters · shape VCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • apio ← aipo · apoi · appio · paio

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ape" for "apio" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([aˈpe] versus [ˈapjo]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "ape" or "apio" show up more?
"apio" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,034 in our Spanish list, against #45,736 for "ape". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ape" 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 #20,722 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ape" and "apio" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ape 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 #20,722 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