repisavsresistaWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: repisa is a noun, resista is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“repisa” is a noun and “resista” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,231
“repisa” frequency rank
#31,963
“resista” frequency rank
75194
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature repisa resista
Definition Soporte fabricado en obra (ladrillo, escayola, etc.), madera, metal u otro material resistente, como derivados del vidrio y el plástico, que aplicado o instalado horizontalmente en paredes, muros, muebles o armarios, o disponiendo de patas, sirve de superficie de base de muy variado uso en casas, establecimientos de venta, industrias, talleres, etc. Primera persona del singular (yo) del presente de subjuntivo de resistir o de resistirse.

Where the eye mixes repisa and resista

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. repisa runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against resista's 7 (CVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
repisa
7 ch
resista

Visual trap between repisa and resista

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: repisa is [reˈpisa] while resista is [reˈsist̪a]. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75194, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

repisa is recorded at frequency rank #43,231, classified as anoun, pronounced [reˈpisa]. resista is at rank #31,963, tagged as averb, pronounced [reˈsist̪a].

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 75194, this pair ranks #20,038 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of repisa vs resista

Shared letters: aeirs. Private to "repisa": p. Private to "resista": t.

"repisa" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "resista" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • repisaerpisa · reipsa · repias · repissa · reppisa · repsia · rpeisa · rrepisa
  • resistaersista · recista · reissta · resisat · resissta · resistta · resitsa · ressista

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "repisa" and "resista" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "repisa" is a noun and "resista" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "repisa" or "resista" show up more?
"resista" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,963 in our Spanish list, against #43,231 for "repisa". 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 "repisa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "resista" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #20,038 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "repisa" and "resista" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rebasa vs repisa". 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 #20,038 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