publicanvspublicandoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#8,168
“publican” frequency rank
#10,915
“publicando” frequency rank
19083
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature publican publicando
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de publicar. Gerundio de publicar.

Where the eye mixes publican and publicando

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. publican runs 8 letters (CVCCVCVC) against publicando's 10 (CVCCVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
publican
10 ch
publicando

Why the eye confuses publican with publicando

A purely visual mix-up. publican ([puˈβ̞likãn]) and publicando ([puβ̞liˈkãn̪d̪o]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “publican” sits inside “publicando”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19083, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

publican is recorded at frequency rank #8,168, classified as averb, pronounced [puˈβ̞likãn]. publicando is at rank #10,915, tagged as averb, pronounced [puβ̞liˈkãn̪d̪o].

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 19083, this pair ranks #265,272 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of publican vs publicando

Shared letters: abcilnpu. Private to "publican": -. Private to "publicando": do.

"publican" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC  ·  "publicando" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • publicanpbulican · ppublican · pubblican · pubilcan · publcian · publiacn · publicann · publiccan
  • publicandopbulicando · ppublicando · pubblicando · pubilcando · publciando · publiacndo · publicadno · publicanddo

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "publican" and "publicando" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([puˈβ̞likãn] versus [puβ̞liˈkãn̪d̪o]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "publican" vs "publicando" - which ranks higher?
"publican" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,168 in our Spanish list, against #10,915 for "publicando". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "publican" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "publicando" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #265,272 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "publican" and "publicando" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "publican vs publicaré". 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 #265,272 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