pasovsposoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#343
“paso” frequency rank
#46,740
“poso” frequency rank
47083
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature paso poso
Definition Cada uno de los movimientos de avance de las piernas al caminar. Sólidos que estaban diluidos en un líquido y por la acción de la gravedad se depositan en el fondo del recipiente que lo contiene al líquido.

Where the eye mixes paso and poso

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

4 ch
paso
4 ch
poso

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. paso ([ˈpaso]) and poso ([ˈposo]) 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 a single letter - a in “paso” becomes o in “poso”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47083, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

paso is recorded at frequency rank #343, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpaso]. poso is at rank #46,740, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈposo].

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 47083, this pair ranks #122,036 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of paso vs poso

Shared letters: ops. Private to "paso": a. Private to "poso": -.

"paso" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "poso" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pasoapso · paos · passo · ppaso · psao
  • posoopso · poos · posso · pposo · psoo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "paso" and "poso" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpaso] versus [ˈposo]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "paso" or "poso"?
"paso" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #343 in our Spanish list, against #46,740 for "poso". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

You've compared "paso" and "poso". Here's where to go from here.

  • Full dictionary entry for "paso" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "poso" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #122,036 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "paso" and "poso" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "poso vs probo". 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

PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list