compañíavscomparsaConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#705
“compañía” frequency rank
#28,292
“comparsa” frequency rank
28997
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature compañía comparsa
Definition Acto o consecuencia de acompañar o acompañarse; de estar, ser o existir junto a otro u otros. En una obra de teatro, grupo de personas que no hablan.

Where the eye mixes compañía and comparsa

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

8 ch
compañía
8 ch
comparsa

Why the eye confuses compañía with comparsa

A purely visual mix-up. compañía ([kõmpaˈɲia]) and comparsa ([kõmˈpaɾsa]) 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 28997, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

compañía is recorded at frequency rank #705, classified as anoun, pronounced [kõmpaˈɲia]. comparsa is at rank #28,292, tagged as anoun, pronounced [kõmˈpaɾsa].

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 28997, this pair ranks #219,226 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of compañía vs comparsa

Shared letters: acmop. Private to "compañía": íñ. Private to "comparsa": rs.

"compañía" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVV  ·  "comparsa" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • comparsaccomparsa · cmoparsa · comaprsa · commparsa · comparas · comparrsa · comparssa · compasra

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "compañía" for "comparsa" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([kõmpaˈɲia] versus [kõmˈpaɾsa]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "compañía" vs "comparsa" - which ranks higher?
"compañía" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #705 in our Spanish list, against #28,292 for "comparsa". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "compañía" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "comparsa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #219,226 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "compañía" and "comparsa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "comparaba vs comparsa". 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 #219,226 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