pesosvspurosWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#1,148
“pesos” frequency rank
#9,187
“puros” frequency rank
10335
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pesos puros
Definition Forma del plural de peso. Forma del masculino plural de puro.

Where the eye mixes pesos and puros

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
pesos
5 ch
puros

Look-alike desk: pesos vs puros

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pesos is [ˈpesos] while puros is [ˈpuɾos]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 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 10335, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pesos is recorded at frequency rank #1,148, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpesos]. puros is at rank #9,187, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈpuɾos].

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 10335, this pair ranks #299,001 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of pesos vs puros

Shared letters: ops. Private to "pesos": e. Private to "puros": ru.

"pesos" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "puros" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pesosepsos · peoss · pesoss · pessos · ppesos · pseos
  • purosppuros · pruos · puors · puross · purros · purso · upros

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pesos" and "puros" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pesos" is a noun and "puros" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "pesos" or "puros" show up more?
"pesos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,148 in our Spanish list, against #9,187 for "puros". 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 "pesos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "puros" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #299,001 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pesos" and "puros" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pires vs puros". 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 #299,001 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