Which to use
“admirable” and “adorable” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #12,963
- “admirable” frequency rank
- #12,748
- “adorable” frequency rank
- 25711
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | admirable | adorable |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Que merece o causa admiración; digno de admirarse por cualidades consideradas extraordinarias. | Que merece ser adorado o venerado. |
Where the eye mixes admirable and adorable
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. admirable runs 9 letters (VCCVCVCCV) against adorable's 8 (VCVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses admirable with adorable
A purely visual mix-up. admirable ([að̞miˈɾaβ̞le]) and adorable ([að̞oˈɾaβ̞le]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 25711, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
admirable is recorded at frequency rank #12,963, classified as anadj, pronounced [að̞miˈɾaβ̞le]. adorable is at rank #12,748, tagged as anadj, pronounced [að̞oˈɾaβ̞le].
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 25711, this pair ranks #235,175 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.
Orthographic DNA of admirable vs adorable
Shared letters: abdelr. Private to "admirable": im. Private to "adorable": o.
"admirable" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCVCCV · "adorable" · 8 letters · shape VCVCVCCV
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Can "admirable" and "adorable" be used interchangeably?
Which is more common, "admirable" or "adorable"?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "admirable" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "adorable" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #235,175 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "admirable" and "adorable" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "adoraban vs adorable". 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 #235,175 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.