picarvspisaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#18,348
“picar” frequency rank
#11,109
“pisa” frequency rank
29457
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature picar pisa
Definition Golpear algo con una punta, agujereándolo o no. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de pisar.

Where the eye mixes picar and pisa

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

5 ch
picar
4 ch
pisa

Look-alike desk: picar vs pisa

A purely visual mix-up. picar ([piˈkaɾ]) and pisa ([ˈpisa]) 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 29457, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

picar is recorded at frequency rank #18,348, classified as averb, pronounced [piˈkaɾ]. pisa is at rank #11,109, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈpisa].

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 29457, this pair ranks #216,916 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of picar vs pisa

Shared letters: aip. Private to "picar": cr. Private to "pisa": s.

"picar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "pisa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • picaripcar · pciar · piacr · picarr · piccar · picra · ppicar
  • pisaipsa · pias · pissa · ppisa · psia

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "picar" for "pisa" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([piˈkaɾ] versus [ˈpisa]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "picar" or "pisa"?
"pisa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,109 in our Spanish list, against #18,348 for "picar". 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 "picar" and "pisa" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "picar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pisa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #216,916 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "picar" and "pisa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "petar vs picar". 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 #216,916 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