leguavslejíaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#31,419
“legua” frequency rank
#38,783
“lejía” frequency rank
70202
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature legua lejía
Definition Medida de longitud, de dimensión variable según los sistemas, aproximadamente equivalente a la distancia recorrida durante una hora caminando a paso normal. Solución cáustica y muy alcalina obtenida de la infusión o decocción de cenizas de madera, usada como limpiador.

Where the eye mixes legua and lejía

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. legua and lejía follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
legua
5 ch
lejía

Visual trap between legua and lejía

A purely visual mix-up. legua ([ˈleɣ̞wa]) and lejía ([leˈxia]) 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 70202, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

legua is recorded at frequency rank #31,419, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈleɣ̞wa]. lejía is at rank #38,783, tagged as anoun, pronounced [leˈxia].

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 70202, this pair ranks #30,247 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of legua vs lejía

Shared letters: ael. Private to "legua": gu. Private to "lejía": jí.

"legua" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV  ·  "lejía" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • legua ← elgua · legau · leggua · leuga · lgeua · llegua

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "legua" and "lejía" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈleɣ̞wa] versus [leˈxia]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "legua" or "lejía" show up more?
"legua" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,419 in our Spanish list, against #38,783 for "lejía". 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 "legua" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "lejía" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #30,247 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "legua" and "lejía" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lejía vs lumia". 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 #30,247 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