EspañavsespesaWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: España is a name, espesa is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“España” is a name and “espesa” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#236
“España” frequency rank
#21,322
“espesa” frequency rank
21558
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature España espesa
Definition País ubicado en el suroeste de Europa, que ocupa la mayoría de la península ibérica. Limita al oeste con Portugal y el océano Atlántico, al norte con el mar Cantábrico, Francia y Andorra y al este y sur con el mar Mediterráneo. Lo integran también las Islas Baleares, las Islas Canarias y las ciudades de Ceuta y Melilla. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de espesar.

Where the eye mixes España and espesa

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

6 ch
España
6 ch
espesa

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: España is [esˈpaɲa] while espesa is [esˈpesa]. 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 (name vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21558, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

España is recorded at frequency rank #236, classified as aname, pronounced [esˈpaɲa]. espesa is at rank #21,322, tagged as averb, pronounced [esˈpesa].

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 21558, this pair ranks #254,377 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of España vs espesa

Shared letters: aeps. Private to "España": ñ. Private to "espesa": -.

"España" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "espesa" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • espesaepsesa · esepsa · espeas · espessa · esppesa · espsea · esspesa · sepesa

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "España" and "espesa" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "España" is a name and "espesa" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "España" or "espesa"?
"España" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #236 in our Spanish list, against #21,322 for "espesa". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list