el muerto al hoyo y el vivo al bollo

/[el ˈmweɾt̪o al ˈoʝo i el ˈβ̞iβ̞o al ˈβ̞oʝo]/ proverb

The verdict

“el muerto al hoyo y el vivo al bollo” is outside the top-ranked Spanish vocabulary, used as a proverb — the kind of word writers most often double-check.

Unranked
below top-frequency Spanish
36
letters

Dominant Wiktionary sense: Indica que los familiares y allegados de un difunto tienen que seguir preocupándose de sus propios quehaceres y necesidades por muy tristes que estén.

Key facts for el muerto al hoyo y el vivo al bollo
PropertyValue
Headwordel muerto al hoyo y el vivo al bollo
LanguageSpanish
Part of speechProverb
IPA[el ˈmweɾt̪o al ˈoʝo i el ˈβ̞iβ̞o al ˈβ̞oʝo]
Letters36
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Where “el muerto al hoyo y el vivo al bollo” sits in Spanish frequency

el muerto al hoyo y el vivo al bollo 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 el muerto al hoyo y el vivo al bollo is 36 letters long, classified as a proverb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [el ˈmweɾt̪o al ˈoʝo i el ˈβ̞iβ̞o al ˈβ̞oʝo]. 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: "Indica que los familiares y allegados de un difunto tienen que seguir preocupándose de sus propios quehaceres y necesidades por muy tristes que estén.".

No misspelling variants are generated for el muerto al hoyo y el vivo al bollo 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 el muerto al hoyo y el vivo al bollo, spelled E-L- -M-U-E-R-T-O- -A-L- -H-O-Y-O- -Y- -E-L- -V-I-V-O- -A-L- -B-O-L-L-O, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.

Definition

  1. 1
    Indica que los familiares y allegados de un difunto tienen que seguir preocupándose de sus propios quehaceres y necesidades por muy tristes que estén.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "el muerto al hoyo y el vivo al bollo"?
"el muerto al hoyo y el vivo al bollo" is spelled E-L- -M-U-E-R-T-O- -A-L- -H-O-Y-O- -Y- -E-L- -V-I-V-O- -A-L- -B-O-L-L-O. The IPA pronunciation is [el ˈmweɾt̪o al ˈoʝo i el ˈβ̞iβ̞o al ˈβ̞oʝo].
What does "el muerto al hoyo y el vivo al bollo" mean?
As a proverb, "el muerto al hoyo y el vivo al bollo" means: Indica que los familiares y allegados de un difunto tienen que seguir preocupándose de sus propios quehaceres y necesidades por muy tristes que estén.
How do you pronounce "el muerto al hoyo y el vivo al bollo"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "el muerto al hoyo y el vivo al bollo" is [el ˈmweɾt̪o al ˈoʝo i el ˈβ̞iβ̞o al ˈβ̞oʝo]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "el muerto al hoyo y el vivo al bollo" come from?
"el muerto al hoyo y el vivo al bollo" 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 “el muerto al hoyo y el vivo al bollo”

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

  • The one correct Spanish spelling is E-L- -M-U-E-R-T-O- -A-L- -H-O-Y-O- -Y- -E-L- -V-I-V-O- -A-L- -B-O-L-L-O — every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
  • Say it as [el ˈmweɾt̪o al ˈoʝo i el ˈβ̞iβ̞o al ˈβ̞oʝo] (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 E in our Spanish index:

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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.