cimavscineWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#5,590
“cima” frequency rank
#961
“cine” frequency rank
6551
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cima cine
Definition Punto más alto de algo. Arte de hacer películas para su exposición en salas de espectáculo.

Where the eye mixes cima and cine

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

4 ch
cima
4 ch
cine

Visual trap between cima and cine

A purely visual mix-up. cima ([ˈsima]) and cine ([ˈsine]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 6551, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cima is recorded at frequency rank #5,590, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈsima]. cine is at rank #961, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈsine].

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 6551, this pair ranks #310,425 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cima vs cine

Shared letters: ci. Private to "cima": am. Private to "cine": en.

"cima" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cine" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cimaccima · ciam · cimma · cmia · icma
  • cineccine · cinne · cnie · icne

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cima" and "cine" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈsima] versus [ˈsine]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "cima" or "cine" show up more?
"cine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #961 in our Spanish list, against #5,590 for "cima". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cima" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cine" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #310,425 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cima" and "cine" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "chimba vs cima". 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 #310,425 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