pavorvspavosTell them apart

Which to use

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

#34,258
“pavor” frequency rank
#25,395
“pavos” frequency rank
59653
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pavor pavos
Definition Temor, con espanto o sobresalto. Forma del plural de pavo.

Where the eye mixes pavor and pavos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. pavor and pavos follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
pavor
5 ch
pavos

Why the eye confuses pavor with pavos

A purely visual mix-up. pavor ([paˈβ̞oɾ]) and pavos ([ˈpaβ̞os]) 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 - r in “pavor” becomes s in “pavos”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59653, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pavor is recorded at frequency rank #34,258, classified as anoun, pronounced [paˈβ̞oɾ]. pavos is at rank #25,395, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈpaβ̞os].

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 59653, this pair ranks #61,838 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pavor vs pavos

Shared letters: aopv. Private to "pavor": r. Private to "pavos": s.

"pavor" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "pavos" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pavor ← apvor · pabor · paovr · pavorr · pavro · pavvor · ppavor · pvaor
  • pavos ← apvos · pabos · paovs · pavoss · pavso · pavvos · ppavos · pvaos

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pavor" and "pavos" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([paˈβ̞oɾ] versus [ˈpaβ̞os]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "pavor" or "pavos" show up more?
"pavos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,395 in our Spanish list, against #34,258 for "pavor". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pavor" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pavos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #61,838 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pavor" and "pavos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pacos vs pavor". 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 #61,838 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