pregónvsprisonTell them apart

Which to use

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

#35,197
“pregón” frequency rank
#37,800
“prison” frequency rank
72997
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pregón prison
Definition Promulgación o publicación que en voz alta se hace en los sitios públicos de una cosa que conviene que todos la sepan. Prisión.

Where the eye mixes pregón and prison

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

6 ch
pregón
6 ch
prison

Why the eye confuses pregón with prison

A purely visual mix-up. pregón ([pɾeˈɣ̞õn]) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 72997, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pregón is recorded at frequency rank #35,197, classified as anoun, pronounced [pɾeˈɣ̞õn]. 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 72997, this pair ranks #24,210 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pregón vs prison

Shared letters: npr. Private to "pregón": egó. Private to "prison": ios.

"pregón" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "prison" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

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

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pregón" for "prison" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([pɾeˈɣ̞õn] versus /pʁi.zɔ̃/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "pregón" or "prison" show up more?
"pregón" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,197 in our Spanish list, against #37,800 for "prison". 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 "pregón" 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 #24,210 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pregón" and "prison" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pitón vs prison". 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 #24,210 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