mayavsmulaWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: maya is a adjective, mula is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#5,410
“maya” frequency rank
#15,906
“mula” frequency rank
21316
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature maya mula
Definition Se dice de la persona perteneciente a la cultura mesoamericana precolombina que habitó el sureste de México y Centroamérica entre los siglos IV y X a.C., o descendiente de aquella gente. Intoxicación producido por la ingesta de alcohol, que provoca una alteración de la conciencia y de las facultades mentales y físicas.

Where the eye mixes maya and mula

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
maya
4 ch
mula

Visual trap between maya and mula

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: maya is [ˈmaʝa] while mula is [ˈmula]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21316, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

maya is recorded at frequency rank #5,410, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈmaʝa]. mula is at rank #15,906, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmula].

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 21316, this pair ranks #255,454 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of maya vs mula

Shared letters: am. Private to "maya": y. Private to "mula": lu.

"maya" · 4 letters · shape CVVV  ·  "mula" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mayaamya · maay · mayya · mmaya · myaa
  • mulamlua · mmula · mual · mulla · umla

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "maya" for "mula" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "maya" is an adjective and "mula" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "maya" or "mula" show up more?
"maya" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,410 in our Spanish list, against #15,906 for "mula". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "maya" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mula" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #255,454 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "maya" and "mula" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mula vs mur". 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 #255,454 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