unanvsurnasWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#19,278
“unan” frequency rank
#7,931
“urnas” frequency rank
27209
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature unan urnas
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de subjuntivo de unir. Forma del plural de urna.

Where the eye mixes unan and urnas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
unan
5 ch
urnas

Visual trap between unan and urnas

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: unan is [ˈunãn] while urnas is [ˈuɾnas]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27209, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

unan is recorded at frequency rank #19,278, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈunãn]. urnas is at rank #7,931, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈuɾnas].

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 27209, this pair ranks #227,949 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of unan vs urnas

Shared letters: anu. Private to "unan": -. Private to "urnas": rs.

"unan" · 4 letters · shape VCVC  ·  "urnas" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • unannuan · uann · unann · unna · unnan
  • urnasrunas · unras · urans · urnass · urnnas · urnsa · urrnas

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "unan" for "urnas" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "unan" is a verb and "urnas" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "unan" or "urnas" show up more?
"urnas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,931 in our Spanish list, against #19,278 for "unan". 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 "unan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "urnas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #227,949 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "unan" and "urnas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "unan vs únanse". 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 #227,949 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