manitavsmínimaWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: manita is a noun, mínima is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“manita” is a noun and “mínima” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#42,561
“manita” frequency rank
#3,800
“mínima” frequency rank
46361
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature manita mínima
Definition Polialcohol de propiedades laxantes que abunda en muchos líquenes, algas pardas y vegetales, en especial en el maná del fresno. Esta formado por seis átomos de carbono, a menudo se obtiene mediante reducción de la manosa o de la fructosa y hoy en día se utiliza industrialmente como aditivo en muchos alimentos. Forma del femenino de mínimo.

Where the eye mixes manita and mínima

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. manita and mínima follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
manita
6 ch
mínima

Why the eye confuses manita with mínima

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: manita is [maˈnit̪a] while mínima is [ˈminima]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46361, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

manita is recorded at frequency rank #42,561, classified as anoun, pronounced [maˈnit̪a]. mínima is at rank #3,800, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈminima].

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 46361, this pair ranks #126,172 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of manita vs mínima

Shared letters: aimn. Private to "manita": t. Private to "mínima": í.

"manita" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "mínima" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • manitaamnita · mainta · maniat · manitta · mannita · mantia · mmanita · mnaita

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "manita" for "mínima" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "manita" is a noun and "mínima" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "manita" vs "mínima" - which ranks higher?
"mínima" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,800 in our Spanish list, against #42,561 for "manita". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "manita" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mínima" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #126,172 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "manita" and "mínima" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "manita vs medita". 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 #126,172 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