escasavsexcusaTell them apart

Quick tell: escasa is a adjective, excusa is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“escasa” is an adjective and “excusa” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,016
“escasa” frequency rank
#3,629
“excusa” frequency rank
10645
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature escasa excusa
Definition Forma del femenino de escaso. Motivo al que se recurre con el fin de eludir una responsabilidad. Evasiva.

Where the eye mixes escasa and excusa

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

6 ch
escasa
6 ch
excusa

Visual trap between escasa and excusa

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: escasa is [esˈkasa] while excusa is [eksˈkusa]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10645, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

escasa is recorded at frequency rank #7,016, classified as anadj, pronounced [esˈkasa]. excusa is at rank #3,629, tagged as anoun, pronounced [eksˈkusa].

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 10645, this pair ranks #297,900 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of escasa vs excusa

Shared letters: aces. Private to "escasa": -. Private to "excusa": ux.

"escasa" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "excusa" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • escasaecsasa · esacsa · escaas · escassa · esccasa · escsaa · esscasa · secasa
  • excusaecxusa · exccusa · excsua · excuas · excussa · exucsa · exxcusa · xecusa

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "escasa" and "excusa" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "escasa" is an adjective and "excusa" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "escasa" or "excusa" show up more?
"excusa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,629 in our Spanish list, against #7,016 for "escasa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "escasa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "excusa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #297,900 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "escasa" and "excusa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "escasa vs escasean". 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 #297,900 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