parevspreyConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#8,289
“pare” frequency rank
#49,873
“prey” frequency rank
58162
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pare prey
Definition Acción o efecto de parar. Presa.

Where the eye mixes pare and prey

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

4 ch
pare
4 ch
prey

Look-alike desk: pare vs prey

A purely visual mix-up. pare ([ˈpaɾe]) and prey (/pɹeɪ/) 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 58162, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pare is recorded at frequency rank #8,289, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpaɾe]. prey is at rank #49,873, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɹeɪ/.

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 58162, this pair ranks #67,527 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pare vs prey

Shared letters: epr. Private to "pare": a. Private to "prey": y.

"pare" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "prey" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pareapre · paer · parre · ppare · prae
  • preypery · pprey · preyy · prrey · prye · rpey

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pare" for "prey" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpaɾe] versus /pɹeɪ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "pare" or "prey" show up more?
"pare" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,289 in our Spanish list, against #49,873 for "prey". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pare" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prey" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #67,527 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pare" and "prey" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "PRC vs prey". 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 #67,527 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