Which to use
“lucen” is a verb and “luces” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #20,416
- “lucen” frequency rank
- #2,893
- “luces” frequency rank
- 23309
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | lucen | luces |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de lucir o de lucirse. | Forma del plural de luz. |
Where the eye mixes lucen and luces
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. lucen and luces follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Look-alike desk: lucen vs luces
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: lucen is [ˈlusẽn] while luces is [ˈluses]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - n in “lucen” becomes s in “luces”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23309, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
lucen is recorded at frequency rank #20,416, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈlusẽn]. luces is at rank #2,893, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈluses].
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 23309, this pair ranks #246,389 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of lucen vs luces
Shared letters: celu. Private to "lucen": n. Private to "luces": s.
"lucen" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC · "luces" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "lucen" for "luces" ever safe?
In ordinary Spanish text, does "lucen" or "luces" show up more?
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 "lucen" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "luces" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #246,389 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "lucen" and "luces" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "lucen vs lucían". 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 #246,389 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.