Which to use
“autoriza” is a verb and “autovía” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #13,848
- “autoriza” frequency rank
- #26,319
- “autovía” frequency rank
- 40167
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | autoriza | autovía |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de autorizar. | Autopista que no reúne los requisitos de seguridad necesarios para ser declarada como tal, generalmente porque el espacio entre los carriles de manos opuestas es menor al normal. |
Where the eye mixes autoriza and autovía
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. autoriza runs 8 letters (VVCVCVCV) against autovía's 7 (VVCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses autoriza with autovía
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: autoriza is [awt̪oˈɾisa] while autovía is [awt̪oˈβ̞ia]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40167, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
autoriza is recorded at frequency rank #13,848, classified as averb, pronounced [awt̪oˈɾisa]. autovía is at rank #26,319, tagged as anoun, pronounced [awt̪oˈβ̞ia].
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 40167, this pair ranks #160,542 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of autoriza vs autovía
Shared letters: aotu. Private to "autoriza": irz. Private to "autovía": ví.
"autoriza" · 8 letters · shape VVCVCVCV · "autovía" · 7 letters · shape VVCVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- autoriza ← atuoriza · auotriza · autoirza · autoriaz · autorizza · autorriza · autorzia · autroiza
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "autoriza" for "autovía" ever safe?
In ordinary Spanish text, does "autoriza" or "autovía" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "autoriza" and "autovía" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "autoriza" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "autovía" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #160,542 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "autoriza" and "autovía" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "autoriza vs autorizaba". 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 #160,542 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.