cóleravsculebraTell them apart

Which to use

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

#10,121
“cólera” frequency rank
#24,451
“culebra” frequency rank
34572
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cólera culebra
Definition Bilis. (Colubridae) Ofidio caracterizado por tener la cabeza recubierta de escamas grandes de disposición típica, escamas dorsales y laterales del cuerpo de contorno aproximadamente romboidal y una sola fila de escamas ensanchadas en la parte ventral

Where the eye mixes cólera and culebra

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. cólera runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against culebra's 7 (CVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
cólera
7 ch
culebra

Look-alike desk: cólera vs culebra

A purely visual mix-up. cólera ([ˈkoleɾa]) and culebra ([kuˈleβ̞ɾa]) 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 34572, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cólera is recorded at frequency rank #10,121, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkoleɾa]. culebra is at rank #24,451, tagged as anoun, pronounced [kuˈleβ̞ɾa].

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 34572, this pair ranks #190,689 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cólera vs culebra

Shared letters: acelr. Private to "cólera": ó. Private to "culebra": bu.

"cólera" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "culebra" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • culebra ← cculebra · cluebra · cuelbra · culbera · culebar · culebbra · culebrra · culerba

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cólera" for "culebra" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkoleɾa] versus [kuˈleβ̞ɾa]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "cólera" or "culebra" show up more?
"cólera" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,121 in our Spanish list, against #24,451 for "culebra". 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 "cólera" and "culebra" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cólera" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "culebra" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #190,689 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cólera" and "culebra" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "culebra vs culebras". 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 #190,689 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