morsavsMoyaWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: morsa is a noun, Moya is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“morsa” is a noun and “Moya” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#37,735
“morsa” frequency rank
#17,491
“Moya” frequency rank
55226
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature morsa Moya
Definition (Odobenus rosmarus) Mamífero pinnípedo semiacuático de gran tamaño que habita en los mares ártico. Los machos superan los 3,5 m de largo y los 1.800 kg de peso, con el cuerpo fusiforme y las extremidades reducidas a aletas; su rasgo más distintivo es la extrema longitud de los colmillos, que salen de la boca superando los 50 cm de longitud. La piel es gruesa, cubierta de un corto y duro pelaje, y poseen una importante capa de grasa subcutánea. Son piscívoros. Forman manadas numerosas, y alcanzan los 50 años de edad. Apellido.

Where the eye mixes morsa and Moya

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. morsa runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against Moya's 4 (CVVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
morsa
4 ch
Moya

Look-alike desk: morsa vs Moya

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: morsa is [ˈmoɾsa] while Moya is [ˈmoʝa]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55226, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

morsa is recorded at frequency rank #37,735, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmoɾsa]. Moya is at rank #17,491, tagged as aname, pronounced [ˈmoʝa].

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 55226, this pair ranks #79,835 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of morsa vs Moya

Shared letters: amo. Private to "morsa": rs. Private to "Moya": y.

"morsa" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Moya" · 4 letters · shape CVVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • morsammorsa · moras · morrsa · morssa · mosra · mrosa · omrsa
  • Moyammoya · moay · moyya · myoa · omya

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "morsa" for "Moya" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "morsa" is a noun and "Moya" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "morsa" vs "Moya" - which ranks higher?
"Moya" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,491 in our Spanish list, against #37,735 for "morsa". 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 "morsa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Moya" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #79,835 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "morsa" and "Moya" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "morral vs morsa". 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 #79,835 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