Which to use
“vacía” is an adjective and “vacilar” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #7,085
- “vacía” frequency rank
- #38,440
- “vacilar” frequency rank
- 45525
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | vacía | vacilar |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Forma del femenino singular de vacío. | Moverse con inseguridad, sin paso firme o de modo indeterminado. |
Where the eye mixes vacía and vacilar
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. vacía runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against vacilar's 7 (CVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Look-alike desk: vacía vs vacilar
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vacía is [baˈsia] while vacilar is [basiˈlaɾ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45525, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
vacía is recorded at frequency rank #7,085, classified as anadj, pronounced [baˈsia]. vacilar is at rank #38,440, tagged as averb, pronounced [basiˈlaɾ].
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 45525, this pair ranks #130,989 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of vacía vs vacilar
Shared letters: acv. Private to "vacía": í. Private to "vacilar": ilr.
"vacía" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "vacilar" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- vacilar ← avcilar · bacilar · vaccilar · vacialr · vacilarr · vacillar · vacilra · vacliar
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "vacía" for "vacilar" ever safe?
Which is more common, "vacía" or "vacilar"?
Useful next steps
Eye-level mix-up between "vacía" and "vacilar" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "vacía" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "vacilar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #130,989 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "vacía" and "vacilar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vacila vs vacilar". 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 #130,989 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.