persavsPersiaTell them apart

Quick tell: persa is a noun, Persia is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“persa” is a noun and “Persia” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#11,469
“persa” frequency rank
#23,175
“Persia” frequency rank
34644
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature persa Persia
Definition Lengua indoeuropea de la rama indoirania, hablada en Irán y las áreas colindantes de Asia. un país de Asia cuya historia remonta a la época en que las tribus indoeuropeas por el año 650 a.C. crearon el imperio de los medos y luego el de los persas. Los persas actuales viven en Irán, un país moderno con una gran historia.

Where the eye mixes persa and Persia

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
persa
6 ch
Persia

Visual trap between persa and Persia

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: persa is [ˈpeɾsa] while Persia is [ˈpeɾsja]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34644, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

persa is recorded at frequency rank #11,469, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpeɾsa]. Persia is at rank #23,175, tagged as aname, pronounced [ˈpeɾsja].

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 34644, this pair ranks #190,345 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of persa vs Persia

Shared letters: aeprs. Private to "persa": -. Private to "Persia": i.

"persa" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "Persia" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • persaeprsa · perrsa · perssa · ppersa
  • Persiaeprsia · percia · perisa · perrsia · persai · perssia · pesria · ppersia

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "persa" for "Persia" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "persa" is a noun and "Persia" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "persa" or "Persia" show up more?
"persa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,469 in our Spanish list, against #23,175 for "Persia". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "persa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Persia" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #190,345 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "persa" and "Persia" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Perseo vs Persia". 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 #190,345 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