ébanovsescañoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#42,219
“ébano” frequency rank
#16,572
“escaño” frequency rank
58791
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ébano escaño
Definition (Diospyros ebenum) árbol de hasta 25 m. de altura, perteneciente a la familia de las ebenáceas, originario de India y de Sri Lanka, caracterizado por un tronco de madera muy maciza, pesada, lisa, blanquecina hacia la corteza y muy negra por el centro. Puesto electivo en un cuerpo colegiado, en especial en un parlamento.

Where the eye mixes ébano and escaño

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. ébano runs 5 letters (VCVCV) against escaño's 6 (VCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
ébano
6 ch
escaño

Look-alike desk: ébano vs escaño

A purely visual mix-up. ébano ([ˈeβ̞ano]) and escaño ([esˈkaɲo]) 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 58791, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ébano is recorded at frequency rank #42,219, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈeβ̞ano]. escaño is at rank #16,572, tagged as anoun, pronounced [esˈkaɲo].

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 58791, this pair ranks #65,129 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ébano vs escaño

Shared letters: ao. Private to "ébano": bné. Private to "escaño": cesñ.

"ébano" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "escaño" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ébano" for "escaño" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈeβ̞ano] versus [esˈkaɲo]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "ébano" or "escaño"?
"escaño" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,572 in our Spanish list, against #42,219 for "ébano". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ébano" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "escaño" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #65,129 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ébano" and "escaño" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ébano vs Elcano". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #65,129 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