mercado negro
[meɾˈkað̞o ˈneɣ̞ɾo]
The verdict
“mercado negro” 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
- 13
- letters
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) — Transacción clandestina de divisas o de mercancías que no cumplen con las obligaciones legales, ya sea porque sean robadas, contrabando, tengan algún origen fraudulento o infrinjan alguna ley.
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | mercado negro |
| Language | Spanish |
| Part of speech | Phrase |
| IPA | [meɾˈkað̞o ˈneɣ̞ɾo] |
| Letters | 13 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “mercado negro” sits in Spanish frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The Spanish entry for mercado negro is 13 letters long, classified as a phrase, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [meɾˈkað̞o ˈneɣ̞ɾo]. It sits outside the most-frequent rank tiers, which is often why uncommon words generate more spelling variants per reader. Wiktionary records 2 distinct senses for this headword, so context determines which meaning a reader should apply.
No misspelling variants are generated for mercado negro 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 mercado negro, spelled M-E-R-C-A-D-O- -N-E-G-R-O, and any other sequence of those letters, regardless of how natural it feels, is a misspelling in standard orthography.
Definition
- 1Transacción clandestina de divisas o de mercancías que no cumplen con las obligaciones legales, ya sea porque sean robadas, contrabando, tengan algún origen fraudulento o infrinjan alguna ley.
- 2Transacción clandestina de productos escasos hecha por mafias que se aprovechan de la necesidad de las personas para estafarlas.
Synonyms
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). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Cite this page
Free to reuse with attribution (CC BY-SA). Copy the citation:
PlainSpell, “mercado negro, Spanish word data” (May 6, 2026). Derived from Wiktionary (kaikki.org, CC BY-SA) and an open word-frequency list. https://plainspell.com/es/palabra/mercado-negro
Frequently Asked Questions
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Using “mercado negro”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Spanish spelling is M-E-R-C-A-D-O- -N-E-G-R-O - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [meɾˈkað̞o ˈneɣ̞ɾo] (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 M in our Spanish index: