peavspreyWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#33,267
“pea” frequency rank
#49,873
“prey” frequency rank
83140
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pea prey
Definition Estado de intoxicación producido por la ingesta de alcohol, que provoca una alteración de la conciencia y de las facultades mentales y físicas. Presa.

Where the eye mixes pea and prey

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. pea runs 3 letters (CVV) against prey's 4 (CCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

3 ch
pea
4 ch
prey

Look-alike desk: pea vs prey

A purely visual mix-up. pea ([ˈpea]) and prey (/pɹeɪ/) 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 83140, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pea is recorded at frequency rank #33,267, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpea]. prey is at rank #49,873, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɹeɪ/.

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 83140, this pair ranks #8,440 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pea vs prey

Shared letters: ep. Private to "pea": a. Private to "prey": ry.

"pea" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "prey" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • prey ← pery · pprey · preyy · prrey · prye · rpey

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pea" and "prey" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpea] versus /pɹeɪ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pea" or "prey"?
"pea" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,267 in our Spanish list, against #49,873 for "prey". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pea" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prey" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #8,440 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pea" and "prey" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "PRC vs prey". 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 #8,440 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