apicalvsaplicarTell them apart

Quick tell: apical is a adjective, aplicar is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“apical” is an adjective and “aplicar” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#48,212
“apical” frequency rank
#2,861
“aplicar” frequency rank
51073
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature apical aplicar
Definition Que pertenece o concierne al ápice o punta de algo. Poner una cosa sobre o en contacto de otra.

Where the eye mixes apical and aplicar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. apical runs 6 letters (VCVCVC) against aplicar's 7 (VCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
apical
7 ch
aplicar

Look-alike desk: apical vs aplicar

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: apical is [apiˈkal] while aplicar is [apliˈkaɾ]. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51073, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

apical is recorded at frequency rank #48,212, classified as anadj, pronounced [apiˈkal]. aplicar is at rank #2,861, tagged as averb, pronounced [apliˈkaɾ].

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 51073, this pair ranks #99,808 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of apical vs aplicar

Shared letters: acilp. Private to "apical": -. Private to "aplicar": r.

"apical" · 6 letters · shape VCVCVC  ·  "aplicar" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • apical ← aipcal · apcial · apiacl · apicall · apiccal · apicla · appical · paical
  • aplicar ← alpicar · apilcar · aplciar · apliacr · aplicarr · apliccar · aplicra · apllicar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "apical" for "aplicar" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "apical" is an adjective and "aplicar" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "apical" vs "aplicar" - which ranks higher?
"aplicar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,861 in our Spanish list, against #48,212 for "apical". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "apical" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aplicar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #99,808 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "apical" and "aplicar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "apical vs ápice". 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 #99,808 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