arañavsatañeWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: araña is a noun, atañe is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“araña” is a noun and “atañe” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#8,470
“araña” frequency rank
#35,885
“atañe” frequency rank
44355
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature araña atañe
Definition Clase de artrópodos arácnidos del orden Aracnea. Su cuerpo se divide en cefalotórax y abdomen. Del primero parten cuatro pares de patas (cada una dividida en siete secciones llamadas artejos), así como otros dos pares de apéndices más (los quelíceros, especie de uñas prensiles, y los palpos o pedipalpos, de carácter táctil). En el abdomen poseen órganos productores de un tipo de seda muy resistente que usan para tejer sus características telarañas, así como para recubrir su nido y para formar capullos en los que depositan sus huevos. En general, tienen una vista pobre a pesar de poseer muchos ojos (usualmente cuatro pares), de distinta disposición según la especie. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de atañer.

Where the eye mixes araña and atañe

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. araña and atañe follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
araña
5 ch
atañe

Why the eye confuses araña with atañe

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: araña is [aˈɾaɲa] while atañe is [aˈt̪aɲe]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44355, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

araña is recorded at frequency rank #8,470, classified as anoun, pronounced [aˈɾaɲa]. atañe is at rank #35,885, tagged as averb, pronounced [aˈt̪aɲe].

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 44355, this pair ranks #137,516 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of araña vs atañe

Shared letters: añ. Private to "araña": r. Private to "atañe": et.

"araña" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "atañe" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "araña" for "atañe" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "araña" is a noun and "atañe" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "araña" or "atañe" show up more?
"araña" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,470 in our Spanish list, against #35,885 for "atañe". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "araña" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "atañe" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #137,516 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "araña" and "atañe" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "atañe vs atente". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #137,516 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