ruinavsruinasWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#9,728
“ruina” frequency rank
#6,457
“ruinas” frequency rank
16185
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ruina ruinas
Definition Proceso o acción de destruirse. Lo que queda de un edificio, una ciudad o una civilización destruidos.

Where the eye mixes ruina and ruinas

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

5 ch
ruina
6 ch
ruinas

Why the eye confuses ruina with ruinas

A purely visual mix-up. ruina ([ˈrwina]) and ruinas ([ˈrwinas]) 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 extra letter(s) - “ruina” sits inside “ruinas”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 16185, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ruina is recorded at frequency rank #9,728, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈrwina]. ruinas is at rank #6,457, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈrwinas].

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 16185, this pair ranks #277,168 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ruina vs ruinas

Shared letters: ainru. Private to "ruina": -. Private to "ruinas": s.

"ruina" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "ruinas" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ruinariuna · rruina · ruian · ruinna · runia · urina
  • ruinasriunas · rruinas · ruians · ruinass · ruinnas · ruinsa · runias · urinas

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ruina" for "ruinas" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈrwina] versus [ˈrwinas]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "ruina" or "ruinas"?
"ruinas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,457 in our Spanish list, against #9,728 for "ruina". 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 "ruina" and "ruinas" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ruina" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ruinas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #277,168 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ruina" and "ruinas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "riba vs ruina". 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 #277,168 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