privavsprivacyWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: priva is a verb, privacy is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“priva” is a verb and “privacy” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#30,631
“priva” frequency rank
#48,623
“privacy” frequency rank
79254
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature priva privacy
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de privar o de privarse. Privacidad.

Where the eye mixes priva and privacy

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

5 ch
priva
7 ch
privacy

Look-alike desk: priva vs privacy

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: priva is [ˈpɾiβ̞a] while privacy is /ˈpɹaɪ.və.si/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “priva” sits inside “privacy”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79254, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

priva is recorded at frequency rank #30,631, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈpɾiβ̞a]. privacy is at rank #48,623, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈpɹaɪ.və.si/.

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 79254, this pair ranks #13,268 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of priva vs privacy

Shared letters: aiprv. Private to "priva": -. Private to "privacy": cy.

"priva" · 5 letters · shape CCVCV  ·  "privacy" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • priva ← pirva · ppriva · priav · priba · privva · prriva · prvia · rpiva
  • privacy ← pirvacy · pprivacy · priavcy · pribacy · privaccy · privacyy · privayc · privcay

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "priva" and "privacy" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "priva" is a verb and "privacy" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "priva" or "privacy" show up more?
"priva" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #30,631 in our Spanish list, against #48,623 for "privacy". 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 "priva" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "privacy" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #13,268 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "priva" and "privacy" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "privacy vs private". 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 #13,268 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