Which to use
“cárcel” and “carey” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,503
- “cárcel” frequency rank
- #31,690
- “carey” frequency rank
- 33193
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | cárcel | carey |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Establecimiento destinado al alojamiento de los penados a privación de libertad | (Eretmochelys imbricata) Gran tortuga marina que habita arrecifes coralinos en las aguas tropicales de todo el globo. Alcanza los 80 kg de peso y más de un metro de largo, con un distintivo caparazón cordiforme y un patrón de color amarillo orlando los escudos del espaldar. Tiene la cabeza elongada, con morro en forma de pico y las patas palmeadas con dos garras por pie. Capturada por sus huevos y su caparazón, está en grave riesgo de extinción. |
Where the eye mixes cárcel and carey
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cárcel runs 6 letters (CVCCVC) against carey's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between cárcel and carey
A purely visual mix-up. cárcel ([ˈkaɾsel]) and carey ([kaˈɾej]) 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 33193, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
cárcel is recorded at frequency rank #1,503, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkaɾsel]. carey is at rank #31,690, tagged as anoun, pronounced [kaˈɾej].
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 33193, this pair ranks #198,108 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of cárcel vs carey
Shared letters: cer. Private to "cárcel": lá. Private to "carey": ay.
"cárcel" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC · "carey" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- carey ← acrey · caery · careyy · carrey · carye · ccarey · craey
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "cárcel" and "carey" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Spanish text, does "cárcel" or "carey" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "cárcel" and "carey" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "cárcel" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "carey" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #198,108 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "cárcel" and "carey" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "carey vs catre". 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 #198,108 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.