podervspoderíoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#168
“poder” frequency rank
#23,180
“poderío” frequency rank
23348
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature poder poderío
Definition Capacidad o facultad de ejecutar una acción. Facultad de hacer o impedir una cosa.

Where the eye mixes poder and poderío

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. poder runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against poderío's 7 (CVCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
poder
7 ch
poderío

Look-alike desk: poder vs poderío

A purely visual mix-up. poder ([poˈð̞eɾ]) and poderío ([poð̞eˈɾio]) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “poder” sits inside “poderío”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 23348, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

poder is recorded at frequency rank #168, classified as anoun, pronounced [poˈð̞eɾ]. poderío is at rank #23,180, tagged as anoun, pronounced [poð̞eˈɾio].

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 23348, this pair ranks #246,212 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of poder vs poderío

Shared letters: deopr. Private to "poder": -. Private to "poderío": í.

"poder" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "poderío" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • poder ← opder · pdoer · podder · poderr · poedr · ppoder

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "poder" and "poderío" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([poˈð̞eɾ] versus [poð̞eˈɾio]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "poder" or "poderío" show up more?
"poder" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #168 in our Spanish list, against #23,180 for "poderío". 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 "poder" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "poderío" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #246,212 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "poder" and "poderío" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "padeció vs poderío". 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 #246,212 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