pasovspusWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#343
“paso” frequency rank
#26,976
“pus” frequency rank
27319
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature paso pus
Definition Cada uno de los movimientos de avance de las piernas al caminar. Sustancia blanquecina o amarillenta producida por el cuerpo durante procesos infecciosos. Está compuesto, principalmente, por microorganismos muertos, glóbulos blancos muertos, y restos de tejido dañado.

Where the eye mixes paso and pus

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

4 ch
paso
3 ch
pus

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

A purely visual mix-up. paso ([ˈpaso]) and pus ([ˈpus]) 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 27319, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

paso is recorded at frequency rank #343, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpaso]. pus is at rank #26,976, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈpus].

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 27319, this pair ranks #227,396 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of paso vs pus

Shared letters: ps. Private to "paso": ao. Private to "pus": u.

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

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pasoapso · paos · passo · ppaso · psao

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "paso" and "pus" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpaso] versus [ˈpus]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "paso" or "pus"?
"paso" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #343 in our Spanish list, against #26,976 for "pus". 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