pillosvspollasWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: pillos is a adjective, pollas is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pillos” is an adjective and “pollas” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#47,324
“pillos” frequency rank
#25,005
“pollas” frequency rank
72329
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pillos pollas
Definition Forma del plural de pillo₁. Forma del plural de polla.

Where the eye mixes pillos and pollas

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

6 ch
pillos
6 ch
pollas

Look-alike desk: pillos vs pollas

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pillos is [ˈpiʝos] while pollas is [ˈpoʝas]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72329, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pillos is recorded at frequency rank #47,324, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈpiʝos]. pollas is at rank #25,005, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈpoʝas].

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 72329, this pair ranks #25,568 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pillos vs pollas

Shared letters: lops. Private to "pillos": i. Private to "pollas": a.

"pillos" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "pollas" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pillosipllos · pilloss · pillso · pilols · pilos · plilos · ppillos
  • pollasopllas · plolas · polals · polas · pollass · pollsa · ppollas

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "pillos" and "pollas" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pillos" is an adjective and "pollas" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "pillos" or "pollas" show up more?
"pollas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,005 in our Spanish list, against #47,324 for "pillos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "pillos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pollas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #25,568 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pillos" and "pollas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pillen vs pillos". 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 #25,568 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