nutrevsnutriaWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#24,971
“nutre” frequency rank
#43,148
“nutria” frequency rank
68119
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature nutre nutria
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de nutrir. (Familia Lutrinae) Cualquiera de trece especies de mamíferos carnívoros mustélidos, de hábitos acuáticos y cuerpo fusiforme, de tamaño variable según la especie. Poseen un tupido pelaje impermeable y muy fino, que les permite conservar el calor del cuerpo, y una cola larga, que los ayuda en la natación. Son voraces predadores.

Where the eye mixes nutre and nutria

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
nutre
6 ch
nutria

Visual trap between nutre and nutria

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: nutre is [ˈnut̪ɾe] while nutria is [ˈnut̪ɾja]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 68119, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

nutre is recorded at frequency rank #24,971, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈnut̪ɾe]. nutria is at rank #43,148, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈnut̪ɾja].

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 68119, this pair ranks #35,337 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of nutre vs nutria

Shared letters: nrtu. Private to "nutre": e. Private to "nutria": ai.

"nutre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "nutria" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • nutrennutre · nture · nurte · nuter · nutrre · nuttre · untre
  • nutriannutria · nturia · nurtia · nutira · nutrai · nutrria · nuttria · untria

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "nutre" and "nutria" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "nutre" is a verb and "nutria" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "nutre" or "nutria"?
"nutre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,971 in our Spanish list, against #43,148 for "nutria". 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 "nutre" and "nutria" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "nutre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "nutria" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #35,337 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "nutre" and "nutria" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Nubia vs nutria". 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 #35,337 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