Which to use
“piece” and “pique” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #28,109
- “piece” frequency rank
- #17,238
- “pique” frequency rank
- 45347
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | piece | pique |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Pieza, trozo, pedazo. | Resentimiento, desazón o disgusto ocasionado de una disputa u otra cosa semejante. |
Where the eye mixes piece and pique
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. piece (CVVCV) and pique (CVCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.
Visual trap between piece and pique
A purely visual mix-up. piece (/piːs/) and pique ([ˈpike]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45347, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
piece is recorded at frequency rank #28,109, classified as anoun, pronounced /piːs/. pique is at rank #17,238, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈpike].
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 45347, this pair ranks #131,940 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of piece vs pique
Shared letters: eip. Private to "piece": c. Private to "pique": qu.
"piece" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV · "pique" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "piece" for "pique" ever safe?
Frequency check: "piece" vs "pique" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "piece" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "pique" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #131,940 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "piece" and "pique" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pence vs piece". 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 #131,940 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.