avevsavisTell them apart

Which to use

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

#5,694
“ave” frequency rank
#46,353
“avis” frequency rank
52047
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ave avis
Definition Animal vertebrado, ovíparo, de respiración pulmonar y sangre de temperatura constante, pico córneo, cuerpo cubierto de plumas, con dos patas y dos alas aptas por lo común para el vuelo. En el estado embrionario tiene amnios y alantoides Opinión.

Where the eye mixes ave and avis

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

3 ch
ave
4 ch
avis

Visual trap between ave and avis

A purely visual mix-up. ave ([ˈaβ̞e]) and avis ([a.vi]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52047, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ave is recorded at frequency rank #5,694, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈaβ̞e]. avis is at rank #46,353, tagged as anoun, pronounced [a.vi].

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 52047, this pair ranks #94,682 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ave vs avis

Shared letters: av. Private to "ave": e. Private to "avis": is.

"ave" · 3 letters · shape VCV  ·  "avis" · 4 letters · shape VCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • avisabis · aivs · aviss · avsi · avvis

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ave" for "avis" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈaβ̞e] versus [a.vi]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "ave" or "avis"?
"ave" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,694 in our Spanish list, against #46,353 for "avis". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ave" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "avis" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #94,682 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ave" and "avis" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "apis vs avis". 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 #94,682 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