peinevspeinesTell them apart

Which to use

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

#23,895
“peine” frequency rank
#49,852
“peines” frequency rank
73747
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature peine peines
Definition Utensilio plano con púas que sirve para arreglar, desenredar y limpiar el cabello u otras fibras. Forma del plural de peine.

Where the eye mixes peine and peines

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. peine runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against peines's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
peine
6 ch
peines

Why the eye confuses peine with peines

A purely visual mix-up. peine ([ˈpejne]) and peines ([ˈpejnes]) 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 extra letter(s) - “peine” sits inside “peines”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73747, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

peine is recorded at frequency rank #23,895, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpejne]. peines is at rank #49,852, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈpejnes].

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 73747, this pair ranks #22,675 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of peine vs peines

Shared letters: einp. Private to "peine": -. Private to "peines": s.

"peine" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "peines" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • peine ← epine · peien · peinne · penie · piene · ppeine
  • peines ← epines · peiens · peiness · peinnes · penies · ppeines

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "peine" for "peines" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpejne] versus [ˈpejnes]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "peine" or "peines"?
"peine" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,895 in our Spanish list, against #49,852 for "peines". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "peine" and "peines" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "peine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "peines" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #22,675 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "peine" and "peines" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peines vs pires". 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 #22,675 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