piedravspíldoraTell them apart

Which to use

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

#1,524
“piedra” frequency rank
#25,013
“píldora” frequency rank
26537
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature piedra píldora
Definition Material natural sólido, caracterizado por su dureza y consistencia, empleado para la construcción en numerosas culturas alrededor del mundo. Masa pequeña, dura y seca, que cabe fácilmente en la boca y puede tragarse, y que a menudo se consume vía oral como medicamento.

Where the eye mixes piedra and píldora

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
piedra
7 ch
píldora

Look-alike desk: piedra vs píldora

A purely visual mix-up. piedra ([ˈpjeð̞ɾa]) and píldora ([ˈpil̪d̪oɾa]) 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 26537, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

piedra is recorded at frequency rank #1,524, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpjeð̞ɾa]. píldora is at rank #25,013, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈpil̪d̪oɾa].

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 26537, this pair ranks #231,153 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of piedra vs píldora

Shared letters: adpr. Private to "piedra": ei. Private to "píldora": loí.

"piedra" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "píldora" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • piedraipedra · peidra · pidera · piedar · pieddra · piedrra · ppiedra

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "piedra" and "píldora" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpjeð̞ɾa] versus [ˈpil̪d̪oɾa]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "piedra" or "píldora"?
"piedra" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,524 in our Spanish list, against #25,013 for "píldora". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "piedra" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "píldora" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #231,153 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "piedra" and "píldora" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "piadosa vs píldora". 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 #231,153 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