economicvseconómicaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#20,665
“economic” frequency rank
#987
“económica” frequency rank
21652
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature economic económica
Definition Económico. Forma del femenino de económico.

Where the eye mixes economic and económica

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. economic runs 8 letters (VCVCVCVC) against económica's 9 (VCVCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
economic
9 ch
económica

Why the eye confuses economic with económica

A purely visual mix-up. economic (/ˌɛk.əˈnɒm.ɪk/) and económica ([ekoˈnomika]) 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 21652, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

economic is recorded at frequency rank #20,665, classified as anadj, pronounced /ˌɛk.əˈnɒm.ɪk/. económica is at rank #987, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ekoˈnomika].

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 21652, this pair ranks #253,935 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of economic vs económica

Shared letters: ceimno. Private to "economic": -. Private to "económica": aó.

"economic" · 8 letters · shape VCVCVCVC  ·  "económica" · 9 letters · shape VCVCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • economic ← ceonomic · ecconomic · ecnoomic · econmoic · econnomic · econoimc · economci · economicc

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "economic" for "económica" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˌɛk.əˈnɒm.ɪk/ versus [ekoˈnomika]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "economic" or "económica" show up more?
"económica" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #987 in our Spanish list, against #20,665 for "economic". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "economic" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "económica" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #253,935 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "economic" and "económica" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "economic vs economist". 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 #253,935 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