pesetavspésimaWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: peseta is a noun, pésima is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“peseta” is a noun and “pésima” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,370
“peseta” frequency rank
#14,686
“pésima” frequency rank
59056
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature peseta pésima
Definition Unidad monetaria de España y Andorra, sustituída por el euro desde el 2002. Forma del femenino singular de pésimo.

Where the eye mixes peseta and pésima

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. peseta and pésima follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
peseta
6 ch
pésima

Visual trap between peseta and pésima

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: peseta is [peˈset̪a] while pésima is [ˈpesima]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59056, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

peseta is recorded at frequency rank #44,370, classified as anoun, pronounced [peˈset̪a]. pésima is at rank #14,686, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈpesima].

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 59056, this pair ranks #64,063 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of peseta vs pésima

Shared letters: aps. Private to "peseta": et. Private to "pésima": imé.

"peseta" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "pésima" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • peseta ← epseta · peceta · peesta · peseat · pesetta · pesseta · pestea · ppeseta

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "peseta" and "pésima" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "peseta" is a noun and "pésima" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "peseta" or "pésima" show up more?
"pésima" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,686 in our Spanish list, against #44,370 for "peseta". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "peseta" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pésima" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #64,063 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "peseta" and "pésima" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "peseta vs presea". 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 #64,063 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