Which to use
“police” and “policía” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #32,809
- “police” frequency rank
- #436
- “policía” frequency rank
- 33245
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | police | policía |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Policía. | Fuerza de seguridad encargada de imponer el orden en el interior de un Estado, de la investigación de los delitos y la persecución y captura de los imputados de los mismos. |
Where the eye mixes police and policía
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. police runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against policía's 7 (CVCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between police and policía
A purely visual mix-up. police (/pəˈliːs/) and policía ([poliˈsia]) 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 33245, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
police is recorded at frequency rank #32,809, classified as anoun, pronounced /pəˈliːs/. policía is at rank #436, tagged as anoun, pronounced [poliˈsia].
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 33245, this pair ranks #197,807 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of police vs policía
Shared letters: cilop. Private to "police": e. Private to "policía": aí.
"police" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV · "policía" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- police ← oplice · ploice · poilce · polcie · policce · poliec · polise · pollice
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "police" for "policía" ever safe?
Which is more common, "police" or "policía"?
Useful next steps
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "police" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "policía" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #197,807 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "police" and "policía" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pole vs police". 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 #197,807 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.