percibevspermiteWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#10,195
“percibe” frequency rank
#900
“permite” frequency rank
11095
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature percibe permite
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de percibir. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de permitir o de permitirse.

Where the eye mixes percibe and permite

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. percibe and permite follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
percibe
7 ch
permite

Why the eye confuses percibe with permite

A purely visual mix-up. percibe ([peɾˈsiβ̞e]) and permite ([peɾˈmit̪e]) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11095, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

percibe is recorded at frequency rank #10,195, classified as averb, pronounced [peɾˈsiβ̞e]. permite is at rank #900, tagged as averb, pronounced [peɾˈmit̪e].

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 11095, this pair ranks #296,288 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of percibe vs permite

Shared letters: eipr. Private to "percibe": bc. Private to "permite": mt.

"percibe" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "permite" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • percibe ← eprcibe · pecribe · percbie · perccibe · percibbe · percieb · percive · pericbe
  • permite ← eprmite · pemrite · perimte · permiet · permitte · permmite · permtie · perrmite

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "percibe" and "permite" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([peɾˈsiβ̞e] versus [peɾˈmit̪e]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "percibe" or "permite" show up more?
"permite" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #900 in our Spanish list, against #10,195 for "percibe". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "percibe" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "permite" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #296,288 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "percibe" and "permite" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "perciba vs percibe". 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 #296,288 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