relaxvsremaTell them apart

Which to use

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

#15,703
“relax” frequency rank
#45,570
“rema” frequency rank
61273
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature relax rema
Definition Relajamiento (físico o psíquico de una persona). En la gramática discursiva, parte de la oración que desarrolla el asunto al que el discurso ya hacía referencia, llamado por contraposición tema. En la mayoría de los casos coincide con la información nueva aportada por la oración o cláusula, y corresponde secuencialmente a la parte que sucede al tema.

Where the eye mixes relax and rema

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. relax runs 5 letters (CVCVC) against rema's 4 (CVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
relax
4 ch
rema

Why the eye confuses relax with rema

A purely visual mix-up. relax ([reˈlaks]) and rema ([ˈrema]) 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 61273, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

relax is recorded at frequency rank #15,703, classified as anoun, pronounced [reˈlaks]. rema is at rank #45,570, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈrema].

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 61273, this pair ranks #56,038 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of relax vs rema

Shared letters: aer. Private to "relax": lx. Private to "rema": m.

"relax" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "rema" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • relax ← erlax · realx · relaxx · rellax · relxa · rleax · rrelax
  • rema ← erma · ream · remma · rmea · rrema

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "relax" for "rema" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([reˈlaks] versus [ˈrema]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "relax" or "rema"?
"relax" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,703 in our Spanish list, against #45,570 for "rema". 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 "relax" and "rema" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "relax" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rema" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #56,038 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "relax" and "rema" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rema vs riba". 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 #56,038 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