apiovsávidoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: apio is a noun, ávido is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“apio” is a noun and “ávido” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#29,034
“apio” frequency rank
#35,837
“ávido” frequency rank
64871
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature apio ávido
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 Que siente un fuerte e intenso deseo de conseguir o hacer algo.

Where the eye mixes apio and ávido

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
apio
5 ch
ávido

Why the eye confuses apio with ávido

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: apio is [ˈapjo] while ávido is [ˈaβ̞ið̞o]. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64871, 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]. 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 64871, this pair ranks #44,307 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of apio vs ávido

Shared letters: io. Private to "apio": ap. Private to "ávido": dvá.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • apioaipo · apoi · appio · paio

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "apio" for "ávido" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "apio" is a noun and "ávido" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "apio" vs "ávido" - which ranks higher?
"apio" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,034 in our Spanish list, against #35,837 for "ávido". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "apio" 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 #44,307 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "apio" 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 #44,307 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