Which to use
“vigía” is a verb and “vigilia” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #31,154
- “vigía” frequency rank
- #17,315
- “vigilia” frequency rank
- 48469
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | vigía | vigilia |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de vigiar. | Estar despierto. |
Where the eye mixes vigía and vigilia
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. vigía runs 5 letters (CVCVV) against vigilia's 7 (CVCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Visual trap between vigía and vigilia
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: vigía is [biˈxia] while vigilia is [biˈxilja]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 48469, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
vigía is recorded at frequency rank #31,154, classified as averb, pronounced [biˈxia]. vigilia is at rank #17,315, tagged as anoun, pronounced [biˈxilja].
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 48469, this pair ranks #114,322 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of vigía vs vigilia
Shared letters: agiv. Private to "vigía": í. Private to "vigilia": l.
"vigía" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV · "vigilia" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- vigilia ← bigilia · ivgilia · vgiilia · viggilia · vigiila · vigilai · vigillia · vigliia
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "vigía" for "vigilia" ever safe?
Frequency check: "vigía" vs "vigilia" - which ranks higher?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "vigía" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "vigilia" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #114,322 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "vigía" and "vigilia" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "vigía vs Vira". 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 #114,322 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.