aquavsauxTell them apart

Quick tell: aqua is a noun, aux is a contraction, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“aqua” is a noun and “aux” is a contraction - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#34,441
“aqua” frequency rank
#32,511
“aux” frequency rank
66952
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aqua aux
Definition Agua. Contracción de la preposición à y el artículo les; a las ; a los.

Where the eye mixes aqua and aux

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

4 ch
aqua
3 ch
aux

Visual trap between aqua and aux

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: aqua is /ˈa.kʷa/ while aux is /o/. 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 contraction), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66952, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aqua is recorded at frequency rank #34,441, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈa.kʷa/. aux is at rank #32,511, tagged as acontraction, pronounced /o/.

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 66952, this pair ranks #38,419 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of aqua vs aux

Shared letters: au. Private to "aqua": q. Private to "aux": x.

"aqua" · 4 letters · shape VCVV  ·  "aux" · 3 letters · shape VVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aquaaqau · aqqua · auqa · qaua

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "aqua" and "aux" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "aqua" is a noun and "aux" a contraction, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "aqua" or "aux"?
"aux" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,511 in our Spanish list, against #34,441 for "aqua". 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 "aqua" and "aux" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "aqua" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aux" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #38,419 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aqua" and "aux" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aqua vs aqueja". 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 #38,419 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