espinalvsespinhoTell them apart

Quick tell: espinal is a adjective, espinho is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“espinal” is an adjective and “espinho” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#49,953
“espinal” frequency rank
#16,755
“espinho” frequency rank
66708
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature espinal espinho
Definition relativo à espinha ou à coluna vertebral parte aguda e picante de um vegetal

Letter map: espinal vs espinho

Shared letters muted; letters that set espinal and espinho apart highlighted. Shared run: 5.

7 ch
espinal
7 ch
espinho

Grammar separator: espinal vs espinho

Our dataset has no pronunciation recorded for both members, so the reliable separator here is grammatical: espinal is anadjective and espinhoanoun. On the page they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66708, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

espinal is recorded at frequency rank #49,953, classified as anadj. espinho is at rank #16,755, tagged as anoun, pronounced /iʃ.ˈpi.ɲu/.

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 66708, this pair ranks #4,888 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of espinal vs espinho

Shared letters: einps. Private to "espinal": al. Private to "espinho": ho.

"espinal" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC  ·  "espinho" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • espinalepsinal · esipnal · espianl · espinall · espinla · espinnal · espnial · esppinal
  • espinhoepsinho · esipnho · espihno · espinhho · espinnho · espinoh · espniho · esppinho

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "espinal" and "espinho" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "espinal" is an adjective and "espinho" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Portuguese text, does "espinal" or "espinho" show up more?
"espinho" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,755 in our Portuguese list, against #49,953 for "espinal". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Pair "espinal" vs "espinho" is on the table, pick a follow-up below.

  • Full dictionary entry for "espinal" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "espinho" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #4,888 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "espinal" and "espinho" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "espia vs espinal". 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 #4,888 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list