muelavsmulasTell them apart

Which to use

“muela” and “mulas” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#21,412
“muela” frequency rank
#24,240
“mulas” frequency rank
45652
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature muela mulas
Definition Disco de piedra que girando sobre otro o sobre la solera, muele lo que se interpone entre ambas piedras. Forma del plural de mula.

Where the eye mixes muela and mulas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. muela (CVVCV) and mulas (CVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

5 ch
muela
5 ch
mulas

Visual trap between muela and mulas

A purely visual mix-up. muela ([ˈmwela]) and mulas ([ˈmulas]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45652, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

muela is recorded at frequency rank #21,412, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmwela]. mulas is at rank #24,240, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmulas].

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 45652, this pair ranks #130,204 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of muela vs mulas

Shared letters: almu. Private to "muela": e. Private to "mulas": s.

"muela" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "mulas" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • muela ← meula · mmuela · mueal · muella · mulea · umela
  • mulas ← mluas · mmulas · muals · mulass · mullas · mulsa · umlas

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "muela" for "mulas" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmwela] versus [ˈmulas]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "muela" or "mulas"?
"muela" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #21,412 in our Spanish list, against #24,240 for "mulas". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "muela" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mulas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #130,204 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "muela" and "mulas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mulas vs mulato". 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 #130,204 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