pecavspúaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#36,209
“peca” frequency rank
#46,152
“púa” frequency rank
82361
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature peca púa
Definition Pequeña mancha de melanina en la piel. Cuerpo de forma acicular, flexible, con punta afilada.

Where the eye mixes peca and púa

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

4 ch
peca
3 ch
púa

Why the eye confuses peca with púa

A purely visual mix-up. peca ([ˈpeka]) and púa ([ˈpua]) 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 82361, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

peca is recorded at frequency rank #36,209, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpeka]. púa is at rank #46,152, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈpua].

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 82361, this pair ranks #9,336 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of peca vs púa

Shared letters: ap. Private to "peca": ce. Private to "púa": ú.

"peca" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "púa" · 3 letters · shape CVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • peca ← epca · pcea · peac · pecca · ppeca

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "peca" for "púa" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpeka] versus [ˈpua]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "peca" or "púa" show up more?
"peca" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,209 in our Spanish list, against #46,152 for "púa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "peca" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "púa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #9,336 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "peca" and "púa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "PRC vs púa". 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 #9,336 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