fado
[ˈfað̞o]
The verdict
“fado” is an uncommon Spanish word, ranked #67,743 in Spanish word frequency and used as a noun.
- #67,743
- frequency rank, Spanish
- 4
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Género musical portugués urbano, de carácter melancólico, cantado por fadista acompañado de viola o guitarra portuguesa
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | fado |
| Language | Spanish |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | [ˈfað̞o] |
| Letters | 4 |
| Frequency rank | #67,743 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “fado” sits in Spanish frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The Spanish entry for fado is 4 letters long, classified as a noun, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [ˈfað̞o]. Corpus data places it at rank #67,743 in overall Spanish word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Género musical portugués urbano, de carácter melancólico, cantado por fadista acompañado de viola o guitarra portuguesa".
Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for fado, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. This headword has no recorded confusable partner, which usually means its spelling is distinct enough that readers don't reach for a similar-looking word instead.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, leaving phoneme-to-grapheme mapping as the best guide to its spelling rather than a borrowing history. The correct Spanish form is fado, spelled F-A-D-O.
Definition
- 1Género musical portugués urbano, de carácter melancólico, cantado por fadista acompañado de viola o guitarra portuguesa
This word in other languages
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
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Using “fado”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Spanish spelling is F-A-D-O - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [ˈfað̞o] (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
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.