lacavslanzaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#38,780
“laca” frequency rank
#3,715
“lanza” frequency rank
42495
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature laca lanza
Definition Barniz, cubierta de maderas y otros materiales. Arma formada por un asta de longitud considerable que en uno de sus extremos posee una punta afilada hecha de algún material resistente como hierro, piedra o hueso, entre otros. Se ha usado en casi todas las épocas y culturas por su facilidad de fabricación y de manejo.

Where the eye mixes laca and lanza

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. laca runs 4 letters (CVCV) against lanza's 5 (CVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
laca
5 ch
lanza

Look-alike desk: laca vs lanza

A purely visual mix-up. laca ([ˈlaka]) and lanza ([ˈlãnsa]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 42495, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

laca is recorded at frequency rank #38,780, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈlaka]. lanza is at rank #3,715, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈlãnsa].

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 42495, this pair ranks #147,882 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of laca vs lanza

Shared letters: al. Private to "laca": c. Private to "lanza": nz.

"laca" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "lanza" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • laca ← alca · laac · lacca · lcaa · llaca
  • lanza ← alnza · lanaz · lannza · lanzza · lazna · llanza · lnaza

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "laca" for "lanza" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈlaka] versus [ˈlãnsa]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "laca" vs "lanza" - which ranks higher?
"lanza" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,715 in our Spanish list, against #38,780 for "laca". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "laca" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lanza" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #147,882 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "laca" and "lanza" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "laca vs Lyra". 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 #147,882 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