pasovspaxWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#343
“paso” frequency rank
#30,181
“pax” frequency rank
30524
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature paso pax
Definition Cada uno de los movimientos de avance de las piernas al caminar. Número de personas de una reserva.

Where the eye mixes paso and pax

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

4 ch
paso
3 ch
pax

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. paso ([ˈpaso]) 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 30524, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

paso is recorded at frequency rank #343, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpaso]. 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 30524, this pair ranks #211,570 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of paso vs pax

Shared letters: ap. Private to "paso": os. Private to "pax": x.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pasoapso · paos · passo · ppaso · psao

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "paso" and "pax" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpaso] versus [ˈpaks]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "paso" or "pax"?
"paso" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #343 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.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list