pasevspaxTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,147
“pase” frequency rank
#30,181
“pax” frequency rank
31328
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pase pax
Definition Acción o efecto de pasar (en sus diferentes acepciones). Número de personas de una reserva.

Where the eye mixes pase and pax

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
pase
3 ch
pax

Look-alike desk: pase vs pax

A purely visual mix-up. pase ([ˈpase]) and pax ([ˈpaks]) 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 31328, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pase is recorded at frequency rank #1,147, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpase]. pax is at rank #30,181, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈpaks].

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 31328, this pair ranks #207,598 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pase vs pax

Shared letters: ap. Private to "pase": es. Private to "pax": x.

"pase" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "pax" · 3 letters · shape CVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • paseapse · paes · passe · ppase · psae

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pase" for "pax" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpase] versus [ˈpaks]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "pase" or "pax" show up more?
"pase" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,147 in our Spanish list, against #30,181 for "pax". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pase" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pax" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #207,598 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pase" and "pax" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pax 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 #207,598 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