escaseavsespasaTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#45,304
“escasea” frequency rank
#30,893
“espasa” frequency rank
76197
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature escasea espasa
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de escasear. Espada.

Where the eye mixes escasea and espasa

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
escasea
6 ch
espasa

Look-alike desk: escasea vs espasa

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: escasea is [eskaˈsea] while espasa is [əsˈpa.zə]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 76197, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

escasea is recorded at frequency rank #45,304, classified as averb, pronounced [eskaˈsea]. espasa is at rank #30,893, tagged as anoun, pronounced [əsˈpa.zə].

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 76197, this pair ranks #18,183 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of escasea vs espasa

Shared letters: aes. Private to "escasea": c. Private to "espasa": p.

"escasea" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVV  ·  "espasa" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • escaseaecsasea · esacsea · escacea · escaesa · escasae · escassea · esccasea · escsaea
  • espasaepsasa · esapsa · espaas · espassa · esppasa · espsaa · esspasa · sepasa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "escasea" for "espasa" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "escasea" is a verb and "espasa" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "escasea" or "espasa" show up more?
"espasa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,893 in our Spanish list, against #45,304 for "escasea". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "escasea" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "espasa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #18,183 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "escasea" and "espasa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "escasea 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 #18,183 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