impactvsimpagoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#32,702
“impact” frequency rank
#36,616
“impago” frequency rank
69318
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature impact impago
Definition El golpe de un cuerpo contra otro, impacto; colisión. Incumplimiento de las obligaciones legales o condiciones de un préstamo, por ejemplo, cuando un comprador no puede pagar su hipoteca, o cuando una corporación o gobierno no es capaz de pagar un bono que ha llegado a su madurez.

Where the eye mixes impact and impago

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

6 ch
impact
6 ch
impago

Why the eye confuses impact with impago

A purely visual mix-up. impact (/ˈɪm.pækt/) and impago ([ĩmˈpaɣ̞o]) 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 69318, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

impact is recorded at frequency rank #32,702, classified as anoun, pronounced /ˈɪm.pækt/. impago is at rank #36,616, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ĩmˈpaɣ̞o].

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 69318, this pair ranks #32,285 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of impact vs impago

Shared letters: aimp. Private to "impact": ct. Private to "impago": go.

"impact" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCC  ·  "impago" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • impactimapct · immpact · impacct · impactt · impatc · impcat · imppact · ipmact
  • impagoimapgo · immpago · impaggo · impaog · impgao · imppago · ipmago · mipago

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "impact" for "impago" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/ˈɪm.pækt/ versus [ĩmˈpaɣ̞o]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "impact" or "impago" show up more?
"impact" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,702 in our Spanish list, against #36,616 for "impago". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "impact" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "impago" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #32,285 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "impact" and "impago" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "impact vs import". 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 #32,285 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