Which to use
“espía” is a verb and “espiga” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #8,796
- “espía” frequency rank
- #35,029
- “espiga” frequency rank
- 43825
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | espía | espiga |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de espiar. | Tipo de inflorescencia racemosa en la cual el eje es alargado, con cabillos muy cortos o sin ninguno, como en el trigo y el espliego; sus flores más jóvenes se ubican en el ápice del mismo. |
Where the eye mixes espía and espiga
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses espía with espiga
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: espía is [esˈpia] while espiga is [esˈpiɣ̞a]. 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 43825, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
espía is recorded at frequency rank #8,796, classified as averb, pronounced [esˈpia]. espiga is at rank #35,029, tagged as anoun, pronounced [esˈpiɣ̞a].
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 43825, this pair ranks #140,479 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of espía vs espiga
Shared letters: aeps. Private to "espía": í. Private to "espiga": gi.
"espía" · 5 letters · shape VCCVV · "espiga" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV
Known mistypes of this pair
- espiga ← epsiga · esipga · espgia · espiag · espigga · esppiga · esspiga · sepiga
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "espía" and "espiga" be used interchangeably?
In ordinary Spanish text, does "espía" or "espiga" show up more?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "espía" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "espiga" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #140,479 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "espía" and "espiga" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "espiga vs expira". 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 #140,479 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.