cadena perpetua

/[kaˈð̞ena peɾˈpet̪wa]/ phrase

The verdict

“cadena perpetua” is outside the top-ranked Spanish vocabulary, used as a phrase — the kind of word writers most often double-check.

Unranked
below top-frequency Spanish
15
letters

Dominant Wiktionary sense: Pena impuesta por la ley consistente en recluir a un reo en un penal por el resto de su vida.

Key facts for cadena perpetua
PropertyValue
Headwordcadena perpetua
LanguageSpanish
Part of speechPhrase
IPA[kaˈð̞ena peɾˈpet̪wa]
Letters15
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “cadena perpetua” sits in Spanish frequency

cadena perpetua falls outside the top-100,000 ranked Spanish words — the long-tail zone of technical, archaic, or low-frequency vocabulary, exactly where readers second-guess spellings most.

Beyond rank #100,000. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

The Spanish entry for cadena perpetua is 15 letters long, classified as a phrase, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [kaˈð̞ena peɾˈpet̪wa]. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Pena impuesta por la ley consistente en recluir a un reo en un penal por el resto de su vida.".

No misspelling variants are generated for cadena perpetua in our index, suggesting the orthography follows predictable Spanish patterns. It is not paired with a close-neighbour confusable in our dataset, which tends to mean the word is visually distinctive enough to stand on its own.

No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. For readers arriving here from a spelling check, the authoritative guidance is: the correct Spanish form is cadena perpetua, spelled C-A-D-E-N-A- -P-E-R-P-E-T-U-A, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Pena impuesta por la ley consistente en recluir a un reo en un penal por el resto de su vida.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "cadena perpetua"?
"cadena perpetua" is spelled C-A-D-E-N-A- -P-E-R-P-E-T-U-A. The IPA pronunciation is [kaˈð̞ena peɾˈpet̪wa].
What does "cadena perpetua" mean?
As a phrase, "cadena perpetua" means: Pena impuesta por la ley consistente en recluir a un reo en un penal por el resto de su vida.
How do you pronounce "cadena perpetua"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "cadena perpetua" is [kaˈð̞ena peɾˈpet̪wa]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "cadena perpetua" come from?
"cadena perpetua" is a Spanish word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Using “cadena perpetua”

The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.

  • The one correct Spanish spelling is C-A-D-E-N-A- -P-E-R-P-E-T-U-A — every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as [kaˈð̞ena peɾˈpet̪wa] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
  • Browse more Spanish words and confusable pairs in the same reference. Spanish words

Nearby Spanish words

Other entries that begin with the letter C in our Spanish index:

Explore PlainSpell

Data Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.