pelavspielWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#21,782
“pela” frequency rank
#1,389
“piel” frequency rank
23171
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pela piel
Definition Paliza (sucesión de golpes). Órgano del sistema integumentario, compuesto por varias capas de tejido epitelial, que recubre casi todo el exterior del cuerpo de los animales vertebrados, aislándolo de los agentes patógenos externos y alojando los receptores para la sensación.

Where the eye mixes pela and piel

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
pela
4 ch
piel

Look-alike desk: pela vs piel

A purely visual mix-up. pela ([ˈpela]) and piel ([ˈpjel]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23171, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pela is recorded at frequency rank #21,782, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpela]. piel is at rank #1,389, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈpjel].

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 23171, this pair ranks #247,046 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pela vs piel

Shared letters: elp. Private to "pela": a. Private to "piel": i.

"pela" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "piel" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pelaepla · peal · pella · plea · ppela
  • pielipel · peil · piell · pile · ppiel

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pela" for "piel" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpela] versus [ˈpjel]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pela" or "piel"?
"piel" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,389 in our Spanish list, against #21,782 for "pela". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "pela" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "piel" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #247,046 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pela" and "piel" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pela vs petar". 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 #247,046 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