pesadasvspestañasWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: pesadas is a participle, pestañas is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pesadas” is a participle and “pestañas” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#13,114
“pesadas” frequency rank
#15,448
“pestañas” frequency rank
28562
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pesadas pestañas
Definition Forma del femenino plural de pesado, participio de pesar. Forma del plural de pestaña.

Where the eye mixes pesadas and pestañas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. pesadas runs 7 letters (CVCVCVC) against pestañas's 8 (CVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
pesadas
8 ch
pestañas

Why the eye confuses pesadas with pestañas

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pesadas is [peˈsað̞as] while pestañas is [pesˈt̪aɲas]. 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 (participle vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28562, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pesadas is recorded at frequency rank #13,114, classified as aparticiple, pronounced [peˈsað̞as]. pestañas is at rank #15,448, tagged as anoun, pronounced [pesˈt̪aɲas].

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 28562, this pair ranks #221,391 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pesadas vs pestañas

Shared letters: aeps. Private to "pesadas": d. Private to "pestañas": tñ.

"pesadas" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "pestañas" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pesadas ← peasdas · pesaads · pesadass · pesaddas · pesadsa · pesdaas · pessadas · ppesadas

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pesadas" and "pestañas" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pesadas" is a participle and "pestañas" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "pesadas" or "pestañas" show up more?
"pesadas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,114 in our Spanish list, against #15,448 for "pestañas". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pesadas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pestañas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #221,391 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pesadas" and "pestañas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pestañas vs pestañear". 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 #221,391 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