padrevsparoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#363
“padre” frequency rank
#2,678
“paro” frequency rank
3041
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature padre paro
Definition Macho, animal o humano, que ha engendrado o adoptado hijos. Interrupción o alteración que los trabajadores hacen de su actividad para protestar contra las condiciones en las que la desempeñan.

Where the eye mixes padre and paro

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
padre
4 ch
paro

Visual trap between padre and paro

A purely visual mix-up. padre ([ˈpað̞ɾe]) and paro ([ˈpaɾo]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 3041, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

padre is recorded at frequency rank #363, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpað̞ɾe]. paro is at rank #2,678, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈpaɾo].

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 3041, this pair ranks #319,142 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of padre vs paro

Shared letters: apr. Private to "padre": de. Private to "paro": o.

"padre" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "paro" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • padreapdre · paddre · pader · padrre · parde · pdare · ppadre
  • paroapro · paor · parro · pparo · prao

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "padre" for "paro" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpað̞ɾe] versus [ˈpaɾo]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "padre" vs "paro" - which ranks higher?
"padre" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #363 in our Spanish list, against #2,678 for "paro". 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 "padre" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "paro" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #319,142 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "padre" and "paro" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "paro vs PRC". 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 #319,142 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