portavsposteWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#10,734
“porta” frequency rank
#13,767
“poste” frequency rank
24501
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature porta poste
Definition Cada una de las aberturas, a modo de ventanas, que se practican en los costados y en la popa de los buques, para dar luz y ventilación al interior de los mismos, para verificar su carga y descarga y muy principalmente para el juego de la artillería. Columna vertical para un señal de tráfico o un semáforo en las vías de tránsito.

Where the eye mixes porta and poste

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

5 ch
porta
5 ch
poste

Look-alike desk: porta vs poste

A purely visual mix-up. porta ([ˈpoɾt̪a]) and poste ([ˈpost̪e]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24501, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

porta is recorded at frequency rank #10,734, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈpoɾt̪a]. poste is at rank #13,767, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈpost̪e].

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 24501, this pair ranks #240,883 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of porta vs poste

Shared letters: opt. Private to "porta": ar. Private to "poste": es.

"porta" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "poste" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • portaoprta · porat · porrta · portta · potra · pporta · prota
  • posteopste · poset · posste · postte · potse · pposte · psote

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "porta" for "poste" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpoɾt̪a] versus [ˈpost̪e]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "porta" or "poste"?
"porta" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,734 in our Spanish list, against #13,767 for "poste". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "porta" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "poste" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #240,883 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "porta" and "poste" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "postas vs poste". 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 #240,883 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