pelovspilónWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,328
“pelo” frequency rank
#47,991
“pilón” frequency rank
49319
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pelo pilón
Definition Filamento de queratina que crece en la piel de humanos y animales, cubren parte de la cabeza u otras partes del cuerpo, tiene una raíz bulbosa que nace en los poros de la piel. Receptáculo de piedra, que se construye en las fuentes para que, cayendo el agua en él, sirva de abrevadero, de lavadero o para otros usos.

Where the eye mixes pelo and pilón

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
pelo
5 ch
pilón

Why the eye confuses pelo with pilón

A purely visual mix-up. pelo ([ˈpelo]) and pilón ([piˈlõn]) 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 49319, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pelo is recorded at frequency rank #1,328, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpelo]. pilón is at rank #47,991, tagged as anoun, pronounced [piˈlõn].

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 49319, this pair ranks #109,518 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pelo vs pilón

Shared letters: lp. Private to "pelo": eo. Private to "pilón": inó.

"pelo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "pilón" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • peloeplo · pello · peol · pleo · ppelo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pelo" for "pilón" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpelo] versus [piˈlõn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "pelo" or "pilón" show up more?
"pelo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,328 in our Spanish list, against #47,991 for "pilón". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pelo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pilón" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #109,518 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pelo" and "pilón" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pillen vs pilón". 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 #109,518 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