reíanvsreinarWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#29,823
“reían” frequency rank
#30,226
“reinar” frequency rank
60049
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature reían reinar
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de reír o de reírse. Regir un rey o príncipe un estado.

Where the eye mixes reían and reinar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. reían runs 5 letters (CVVVC) against reinar's 6 (CVVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
reían
6 ch
reinar

Look-alike desk: reían vs reinar

A purely visual mix-up. reían ([reˈiãn]) and reinar ([rejˈnaɾ]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60049, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

reían is recorded at frequency rank #29,823, classified as averb, pronounced [reˈiãn]. reinar is at rank #30,226, tagged as averb, pronounced [rejˈnaɾ].

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 60049, this pair ranks #60,325 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of reían vs reinar

Shared letters: aenr. Private to "reían": í. Private to "reinar": i.

"reían" · 5 letters · shape CVVVC  ·  "reinar" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • reinar ← erinar · reianr · reinarr · reinnar · reinra · reniar · rienar · rreinar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "reían" and "reinar" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([reˈiãn] versus [rejˈnaɾ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "reían" or "reinar" show up more?
"reían" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,823 in our Spanish list, against #30,226 for "reinar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "reían" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "reinar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #60,325 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "reían" and "reinar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "reían vs rias". 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 #60,325 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