pasadavspayasadaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,992
“pasada” frequency rank
#43,164
“payasada” frequency rank
45156
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pasada payasada
Definition Acción o efecto de pasar o de pasarse. Dicho o acto divertido, propio de un payaso.

Where the eye mixes pasada and payasada

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

6 ch
pasada
8 ch
payasada

Why the eye confuses pasada with payasada

A purely visual mix-up. pasada ([paˈsað̞a]) and payasada ([paʝaˈsað̞a]) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45156, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pasada is recorded at frequency rank #1,992, classified as anoun, pronounced [paˈsað̞a]. payasada is at rank #43,164, tagged as anoun, pronounced [paʝaˈsað̞a].

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 45156, this pair ranks #133,062 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pasada vs payasada

Shared letters: adps. Private to "pasada": -. Private to "payasada": y.

"pasada" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "payasada" · 8 letters · shape CVVVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pasadaapsada · paasda · pasaad · pasadda · pasdaa · passada · ppasada · psaada
  • payasadaapyasada · paaysada · payaasda · payasaad · payasadda · payasdaa · payassada · paysaada

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pasada" for "payasada" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([paˈsað̞a] versus [paʝaˈsað̞a]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pasada" vs "payasada" - which ranks higher?
"pasada" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,992 in our Spanish list, against #43,164 for "payasada". 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 "pasada" and "payasada" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pasada" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "payasada" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #133,062 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pasada" and "payasada" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "payasada vs payasadas". 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 #133,062 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