portadavspuntadaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#3,648
“portada” frequency rank
#47,360
“puntada” frequency rank
51008
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature portada puntada
Definition Página de un libro donde, generalmente, aparecen el nombre del autor, el título del libro y la editorial. Acción o efecto de puntar.

Where the eye mixes portada and puntada

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. portada and puntada follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
portada
7 ch
puntada

Why the eye confuses portada with puntada

A purely visual mix-up. portada ([poɾˈt̪að̞a]) and puntada ([pũn̪ˈt̪að̞a]) 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 51008, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

portada is recorded at frequency rank #3,648, classified as anoun, pronounced [poɾˈt̪að̞a]. puntada is at rank #47,360, tagged as anoun, pronounced [pũn̪ˈt̪að̞a].

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 51008, this pair ranks #100,183 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of portada vs puntada

Shared letters: adpt. Private to "portada": or. Private to "puntada": nu.

"portada" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "puntada" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • portada ← oprtada · poratda · porrtada · portaad · portadda · portdaa · porttada · potrada
  • puntada ← pnutada · ppuntada · punatda · punntada · puntaad · puntadda · puntdaa · punttada

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "portada" and "puntada" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([poɾˈt̪að̞a] versus [pũn̪ˈt̪að̞a]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "portada" or "puntada"?
"portada" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,648 in our Spanish list, against #47,360 for "puntada". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Eye-level mix-up between "portada" and "puntada" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "portada" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "puntada" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #100,183 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "portada" and "puntada" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "puntada vs puntal". 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 #100,183 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