púbicovspublicWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#47,362
“púbico” frequency rank
#14,212
“public” frequency rank
61574
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature púbico public
Definition Que pertenece o concierne al pubis. Público

Where the eye mixes púbico and public

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
púbico
6 ch
public

Why the eye confuses púbico with public

A purely visual mix-up. púbico ([ˈpuβ̞iko]) and public ([py.blik]) 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 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61574, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

púbico is recorded at frequency rank #47,362, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈpuβ̞iko]. public is at rank #14,212, tagged as anadj, pronounced [py.blik].

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 61574, this pair ranks #54,984 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of púbico vs public

Shared letters: bcip. Private to "púbico": . Private to "public": lu.

"púbico" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "public" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • publicpbulic · ppublic · pubblic · pubilc · publci · publicc · publlic · pulbic

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "púbico" for "public" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈpuβ̞iko] versus [py.blik]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "púbico" or "public"?
"public" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,212 in our Spanish list, against #47,362 for "púbico". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "púbico" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "public" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #54,984 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "púbico" and "public" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "púbico vs pubis". 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 #54,984 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