encajevsenlaceWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#14,585
“encaje” frequency rank
#2,341
“enlace” frequency rank
16926
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature encaje enlace
Definition Acción o efecto de encajar. Acción y efecto de enlazar o enlazarse.

Where the eye mixes encaje and enlace

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. encaje and enlace follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
encaje
6 ch
enlace

Look-alike desk: encaje vs enlace

A purely visual mix-up. encaje ([ẽŋˈkaxe]) and enlace ([ẽnˈlase]) 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 16926, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

encaje is recorded at frequency rank #14,585, classified as anoun, pronounced [ẽŋˈkaxe]. enlace is at rank #2,341, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ẽnˈlase].

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 16926, this pair ranks #274,224 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of encaje vs enlace

Shared letters: acen. Private to "encaje": j. Private to "enlace": l.

"encaje" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "enlace" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • encaje ← ecnaje · enacje · encaej · encajje · enccaje · encjae · enncaje · necaje
  • enlace ← elnace · enalce · enlacce · enlaec · enlase · enlcae · enllace · ennlace

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "encaje" and "enlace" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ẽŋˈkaxe] versus [ẽnˈlase]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "encaje" vs "enlace" - which ranks higher?
"enlace" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,341 in our Spanish list, against #14,585 for "encaje". 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 "encaje" and "enlace" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "encaje" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "enlace" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #274,224 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "encaje" and "enlace" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "encaje vs encoge". 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 #274,224 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