Which to use
“lengua” and “lingua” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #1,057
- “lengua” frequency rank
- #36,650
- “lingua” frequency rank
- 37707
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lengua | lingua |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Órgano ubicado en el interior de la boca de personas y animales, con ella se percibe el sentido del gusto y se modifican los sonidos producidos en la boca. | Lengua. |
Where the eye mixes lengua and lingua
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. lengua and lingua follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: lengua vs lingua
A purely visual mix-up. lengua ([ˈlẽŋgwa]) and lingua (/ˈliŋ.ɡwa/) 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 a single letter - e in “lengua” becomes i in “lingua”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37707, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lengua is recorded at frequency rank #1,057, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈlẽŋgwa]. lingua is at rank #36,650, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈliŋ.ɡwa/.
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 37707, this pair ranks #173,892 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of lengua vs lingua
Shared letters: aglnu. Private to "lengua": e. Private to "lingua": i.
"lengua" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV · "lingua" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Do "lengua" and "lingua" mean the same thing in a sentence?
In ordinary Spanish text, does "lengua" or "lingua" show up more?
What to do next
Eye-level mix-up between "lengua" and "lingua" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "lengua" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "lingua" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #173,892 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lengua" and "lingua" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "legua vs lingua". 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 #173,892 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.