empleovsempujoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: empleo is a noun, empujo is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“empleo” is a noun and “empujo” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,310
“empleo” frequency rank
#47,765
“empujo” frequency rank
49075
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature empleo empujo
Definition Acción o efecto de emplear Primera persona del singular (yo) del presente de indicativo de empujar.

Where the eye mixes empleo and empujo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
empleo
6 ch
empujo

Visual trap between empleo and empujo

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: empleo is [ẽmˈpleo] while empujo is [ẽmˈpuxo]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49075, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

empleo is recorded at frequency rank #1,310, classified as anoun, pronounced [ẽmˈpleo]. empujo is at rank #47,765, tagged as averb, pronounced [ẽmˈpuxo].

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 49075, this pair ranks #110,858 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of empleo vs empujo

Shared letters: emop. Private to "empleo": l. Private to "empujo": ju.

"empleo" · 6 letters · shape VCCCVV  ·  "empujo" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • empleoemlpeo · emmpleo · empelo · emplleo · emploe · emppleo · epmleo · mepleo
  • empujoemmpujo · empjuo · emppujo · empujjo · empuoj · emupjo · epmujo · mepujo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "empleo" and "empujo" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "empleo" is a noun and "empujo" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "empleo" or "empujo"?
"empleo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,310 in our Spanish list, against #47,765 for "empujo". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "empleo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "empujo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #110,858 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "empleo" and "empujo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "embudo vs empujo". 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 #110,858 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