pievspreyConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#1,022
“pie” frequency rank
#49,873
“prey” frequency rank
50895
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pie prey
Definition Miembro del cuerpo que se encuentra al final de las piernas y debajo del tobillo. Presa.

Where the eye mixes pie and prey

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

3 ch
pie
4 ch
prey

Look-alike desk: pie vs prey

A purely visual mix-up. pie ([ˈpje]) and prey (/pɹeɪ/) 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 50895, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pie is recorded at frequency rank #1,022, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpje]. prey is at rank #49,873, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pɹeɪ/.

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 50895, this pair ranks #100,755 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pie vs prey

Shared letters: ep. Private to "pie": i. Private to "prey": ry.

"pie" · 3 letters · shape CVV  ·  "prey" · 4 letters · shape CCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • preypery · pprey · preyy · prrey · prye · rpey

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pie" and "prey" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpje] versus /pɹeɪ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "pie" or "prey" show up more?
"pie" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,022 in our Spanish list, against #49,873 for "prey". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "pie" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prey" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #100,755 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pie" and "prey" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "PRC vs prey". 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 #100,755 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