picanvspickWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#32,333
“pican” frequency rank
#22,147
“pick” frequency rank
54480
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pican pick
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de picar o de picarse. Elegir, seleccionar, escoger.

Where the eye mixes pican and pick

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

5 ch
pican
4 ch
pick

Why the eye confuses pican with pick

A purely visual mix-up. pican ([ˈpikãn]) and pick (/pɪk/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 54480, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pican is recorded at frequency rank #32,333, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈpikãn]. pick is at rank #22,147, tagged as averb, pronounced /pɪk/.

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 54480, this pair ranks #83,121 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pican vs pick

Shared letters: cip. Private to "pican": an. Private to "pick": k.

"pican" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "pick" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • picanipcan · pcian · piacn · picann · piccan · picna · ppican
  • pickipck · pcik · picck · pickk · pikc · ppick

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pican" and "pick" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpikãn] versus /pɪk/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "pican" or "pick"?
"pick" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,147 in our Spanish list, against #32,333 for "pican". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "pican" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pick" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #83,121 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pican" and "pick" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pelan vs pican". 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 #83,121 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