muestravsmuestroWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: muestra is a noun, muestro is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“muestra” is a noun and “muestro” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#751
“muestra” frequency rank
#14,655
“muestro” frequency rank
15406
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature muestra muestro
Definition Acción o efecto de exhibir. Primera persona del singular (yo) del presente de indicativo de mostrar.

Where the eye mixes muestra and muestro

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. muestra and muestro follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
muestra
7 ch
muestro

Visual trap between muestra and muestro

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: muestra is [ˈmwest̪ɾa] while muestro is [ˈmwest̪ɾo]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “muestra” becomes o in “muestro”, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 15406, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

muestra is recorded at frequency rank #751, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmwest̪ɾa]. muestro is at rank #14,655, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈmwest̪ɾo].

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 15406, this pair ranks #280,299 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of muestra vs muestro

Shared letters: emrstu. Private to "muestra": a. Private to "muestro": o.

"muestra" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCCV  ·  "muestro" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • muestra ← meustra · mmuestra · muesrta · muesstra · muestar · muestrra · muesttra · muetsra
  • muestro ← meustro · mmuestro · muesrto · muesstro · muestor · muestrro · muesttro · muetsro

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "muestra" and "muestro" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "muestra" is a noun and "muestro" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "muestra" or "muestro" show up more?
"muestra" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #751 in our Spanish list, against #14,655 for "muestro". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "muestra" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "muestro" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #280,299 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "muestra" and "muestro" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "muestres vs muestro". 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 #280,299 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