paganvspasarWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#3,867
“pagan” frequency rank
#381
“pasar” frequency rank
4248
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pagan pasar
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de pagar o de pagarse. Llevar de un lugar a otro.

Where the eye mixes pagan and pasar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. pagan and pasar follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
pagan
5 ch
pasar

Visual trap between pagan and pasar

A purely visual mix-up. pagan ([ˈpaɣ̞ãn]) and pasar ([paˈsaɾ]) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 4248, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pagan is recorded at frequency rank #3,867, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈpaɣ̞ãn]. pasar is at rank #381, tagged as averb, pronounced [paˈsaɾ].

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 4248, this pair ranks #316,534 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pagan vs pasar

Shared letters: ap. Private to "pagan": gn. Private to "pasar": rs.

"pagan" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "pasar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pagan ← apgan · paagn · pagann · paggan · pagna · pgaan · ppagan
  • pasar ← apsar · paasr · pasarr · pasra · passar · ppasar · psaar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pagan" and "pasar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpaɣ̞ãn] versus [paˈsaɾ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pagan" vs "pasar" - which ranks higher?
"pasar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #381 in our Spanish list, against #3,867 for "pagan". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pagan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pasar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #316,534 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pagan" and "pasar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pagan vs pelan". 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 #316,534 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