ápicevsapioWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#18,127
“ápice” frequency rank
#29,034
“apio” frequency rank
47161
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ápice apio
Definition Extremo superior o punta de alguna cosa. (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 ápice and apio

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. ápice 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
ápice
4 ch
apio

Why the eye confuses ápice with apio

A purely visual mix-up. ápice ([ˈapise]) 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 47161, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ápice is recorded at frequency rank #18,127, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈapise]. 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 47161, this pair ranks #121,600 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ápice vs apio

Shared letters: ip. Private to "ápice": ceá. Private to "apio": ao.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • apio ← aipo · apoi · appio · paio

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ápice" for "apio" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈapise] versus [ˈapjo]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "ápice" or "apio" show up more?
"ápice" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,127 in our Spanish list, against #29,034 for "apio". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ápice" 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 #121,600 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ápice" 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 #121,600 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