pilónvsprisonConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#47,991
“pilón” frequency rank
#37,800
“prison” frequency rank
85791
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pilón prison
Definition Receptáculo de piedra, que se construye en las fuentes para que, cayendo el agua en él, sirva de abrevadero, de lavadero o para otros usos. Prisión.

Where the eye mixes pilón and prison

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

5 ch
pilón
6 ch
prison

Why the eye confuses pilón with prison

A purely visual mix-up. pilón ([piˈlõn]) and prison (/pʁi.zɔ̃/) 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 85791, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pilón is recorded at frequency rank #47,991, classified as anoun, pronounced [piˈlõn]. prison is at rank #37,800, tagged as anoun, pronounced /pʁi.zɔ̃/.

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 85791, this pair ranks #5,823 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pilón vs prison

Shared letters: inp. Private to "pilón": . Private to "prison": ors.

"pilón" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "prison" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • prisonpirson · pprison · priosn · prisno · prisonn · prisson · prrison · prsion

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pilón" for "prison" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([piˈlõn] versus /pʁi.zɔ̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "pilón" vs "prison" - which ranks higher?
"prison" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #37,800 in our Spanish list, against #47,991 for "pilón". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "pilón" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "prison" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #5,823 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pilón" and "prison" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pillen vs pilón". 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 #5,823 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