pulgadavspulidaWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: pulgada is a noun, pulida is a participle, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pulgada” is a noun and “pulida” is a participle - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#25,012
“pulgada” frequency rank
#49,222
“pulida” frequency rank
74234
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pulgada pulida
Definition Unidad de longitud que en un principio correspondía a la medida promedio de la primera falange del pulgar de un hombre adulto. Ha sido estandarizada de diversos modos, pero la de uso más común equivale a 2.54 centímetros y a la doceava parte de un pie. Forma del femenino de pulido, participio de pulir.

Where the eye mixes pulgada and pulida

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
pulgada
6 ch
pulida

Visual trap between pulgada and pulida

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pulgada is [pulˈɣ̞að̞a] while pulida is [puˈlið̞a]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs participle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 74234, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pulgada is recorded at frequency rank #25,012, classified as anoun, pronounced [pulˈɣ̞að̞a]. pulida is at rank #49,222, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [puˈlið̞a].

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 74234, this pair ranks #21,684 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of pulgada vs pulida

Shared letters: adlpu. Private to "pulgada": g. Private to "pulida": i.

"pulgada" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "pulida" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pulgadaplugada · ppulgada · puglada · pulagda · pulgaad · pulgadda · pulgdaa · pulggada
  • pulidapluida · ppulida · puilda · puldia · puliad · pulidda · pullida · uplida

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "pulgada" and "pulida" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pulgada" is a noun and "pulida" a participle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "pulgada" or "pulida" show up more?
"pulgada" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,012 in our Spanish list, against #49,222 for "pulida". 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 "pulgada" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pulida" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #21,684 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pulgada" and "pulida" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pedida vs pulida". 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 #21,684 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