flanvsflowTell them apart

Which to use

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

#26,857
“flan” frequency rank
#22,021
“flow” frequency rank
48878
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature flan flow
Definition Postre preparado con yemas de huevo, leche y azúcar, aromatizado con vainilla o algún otro producto, y cocinado al baño maría con caramelo en la capa inferior. Capacidad de rapear de forma armoniosa con el ritmo de la canción.

Where the eye mixes flan and flow

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
flan
4 ch
flow

Why the eye confuses flan with flow

A purely visual mix-up. flan ([ˈflãn]) and flow ([ˈflow]) 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 48878, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

flan is recorded at frequency rank #26,857, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈflãn]. flow is at rank #22,021, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈflow].

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 48878, this pair ranks #112,020 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of flan vs flow

Shared letters: fl. Private to "flan": an. Private to "flow": ow.

"flan" · 4 letters · shape CCVC  ·  "flow" · 4 letters · shape CCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • flanfaln · fflan · flann · fllan · flna · lfan
  • flowfflow · fllow · floww · flwo · folw · lfow

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "flan" for "flow" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈflãn] versus [ˈflow]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "flan" vs "flow" - which ranks higher?
"flow" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,021 in our Spanish list, against #26,857 for "flan". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "flan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "flow" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #112,020 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "flan" and "flow" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "flama vs flan". 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 #112,020 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