peinevsprinceWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#23,895
“peine” frequency rank
#15,938
“prince” frequency rank
39833
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature peine prince
Definition Utensilio plano con púas que sirve para arreglar, desenredar y limpiar el cabello u otras fibras. Príncipe.

Where the eye mixes peine and prince

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. peine runs 5 letters (CVVCV) against prince's 6 (CCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
peine
6 ch
prince

Look-alike desk: peine vs prince

A purely visual mix-up. peine ([ˈpejne]) and prince ([pʁɛ̃s]) 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 39833, 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]. prince is at rank #15,938, tagged as anoun, pronounced [pʁɛ̃s].

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 39833, this pair ranks #162,413 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of peine vs prince

Shared letters: einp. Private to "peine": -. Private to "prince": cr.

"peine" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "prince" · 6 letters · shape CCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • peine ← epine · peien · peinne · penie · piene · ppeine
  • prince ← pirnce · pprince · pricne · princce · prinec · prinnce · prinse · prnice

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "peine" for "prince" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpejne] versus [pʁɛ̃s]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "peine" or "prince" show up more?
"prince" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,938 in our Spanish list, against #23,895 for "peine". 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 "peine" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prince" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #162,413 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "peine" and "prince" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peine vs pence". 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 #162,413 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