apiovsapisWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#29,034
“apio” frequency rank
#49,423
“apis” frequency rank
78457
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature apio apis
Definition (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 Abeja.

Where the eye mixes apio and apis

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. apio (VCVV) and apis (VCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
apio
4 ch
apis

Look-alike desk: apio vs apis

A purely visual mix-up. apio ([ˈapjo]) and apis (/ˈa.pis/) 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 a single letter - o in “apio” becomes s in “apis”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 78457, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

apio is recorded at frequency rank #29,034, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈapjo]. apis is at rank #49,423, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈa.pis/.

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 78457, this pair ranks #14,429 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of apio vs apis

Shared letters: aip. Private to "apio": o. Private to "apis": s.

"apio" · 4 letters · shape VCVV  ·  "apis" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • apio ← aipo · apoi · appio · paio
  • apis ← aips · apiss · appis · apsi · pais

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "apio" and "apis" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈapjo] versus /ˈa.pis/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "apio" or "apis" show up more?
"apio" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,034 in our Spanish list, against #49,423 for "apis". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "apio" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "apis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #14,429 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "apio" and "apis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "alió 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 #14,429 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