adelantadovsadelantoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: adelantado is a adjective, adelanto is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“adelantado” is an adjective and “adelanto” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#7,946
“adelantado” frequency rank
#9,567
“adelanto” frequency rank
17513
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature adelantado adelanto
Definition Atrevido, que no guarda respeto ni atención. Anticipación de dinero.

Where the eye mixes adelantado and adelanto

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. adelantado runs 10 letters (VCVCVCCVCV) against adelanto's 8 (VCVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
adelantado
8 ch
adelanto

Why the eye confuses adelantado with adelanto

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: adelantado is [að̞elãn̪ˈt̪að̞o] while adelanto is [að̞eˈlãn̪t̪o]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17513, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

adelantado is recorded at frequency rank #7,946, classified as anadj, pronounced [að̞elãn̪ˈt̪að̞o]. adelanto is at rank #9,567, tagged as anoun, pronounced [að̞eˈlãn̪t̪o].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 17513, this pair ranks #271,784 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of adelantado vs adelanto

Shared letters: adelnot. Private to "adelantado": -. Private to "adelanto": -.

"adelantado" · 10 letters · shape VCVCVCCVCV  ·  "adelanto" · 8 letters · shape VCVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • adelantadoaddelantado · adealntado · adelanatdo · adelanntado · adelantaddo · adelantaod · adelantdao · adelanttado
  • adelantoaddelanto · adealnto · adelannto · adelanot · adelantto · adelatno · adellanto · adelnato

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "adelantado" and "adelanto" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "adelantado" is an adjective and "adelanto" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "adelantado" or "adelanto" show up more?
"adelantado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,946 in our Spanish list, against #9,567 for "adelanto". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "adelantado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "adelanto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #271,784 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "adelantado" and "adelanto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "adelantadas vs adelantado". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #271,784 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list