desafortunado
[d̪esafoɾt̪uˈnað̞o]
The verdict
“desafortunado” is a moderately-common Spanish word, ranked #18,788 in Spanish word frequency and used as an adjective.
- #18,788
- frequency rank, Spanish
- 13
- letters
- 19
- tracked misspellings
- 2
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Que no tiene fortuna o buena suerte; que trae o atrae adversidad.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | desafortunado |
| Language | Spanish |
| Part of speech | Adjective |
| IPA | [d̪esafoɾt̪uˈnað̞o] |
| Letters | 13 |
| Frequency rank | #18,788 |
| Misspellings tracked | 19 |
| Confusable pairs | 2 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “desafortunado” sits in Spanish frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The Spanish entry for desafortunado is 13 letters long, classified as an adjective, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [d̪esafoɾt̪uˈnað̞o]. Corpus data places it at rank #18,788 in overall Spanish word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
Our generated misspelling index lists 19 likely wrong-spelling variants for desafortunado, with forms such as "ddesafortunado", "deasfortunado", and "desaffortunado". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 2 confusable-pair relationships, "desafortunados", "desafortunada", since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
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. The correct Spanish form is desafortunado, spelled D-E-S-A-F-O-R-T-U-N-A-D-O.
Definition
- 1Que no tiene fortuna o buena suerte; que trae o atrae adversidad.
- 2Que ocurre o se hace de tal modo o en tal momento que genera resultados desfavorables, negativos o no deseados.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ddesafortunado,deasfortunado,desaffortunado,desaforrtunado,desafortnuado,desaforttunado,desafortuando,desafortunaddo,desafortunaod,desafortundao,desafortunnado,desaforutnado,desafotrunado,desafrotunado,desaofrtunado,desfaortunado,dessafortunado,dseafortunado,edsafortunado
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of desafortunado - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 Spanish corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
How do you spell "desafortunado"?
What does "desafortunado" mean?
What words are commonly confused with "desafortunado"?
How do you pronounce "desafortunado"?
What language does "desafortunado" come from?
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “desafortunado”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Spanish spelling is D-E-S-A-F-O-R-T-U-N-A-D-O - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [d̪esafoɾt̪uˈnað̞o] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “desafortunados” - see the side-by-side comparison. desafortunado vs desafortunados
- Browse more Spanish words and confusable pairs in the same reference. Spanish words
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.