agravarvsatraparTell them apart

Which to use

“agravar” and “atrapar” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#35,329
“agravar” frequency rank
#11,907
“atrapar” frequency rank
47236
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature agravar atrapar
Definition Hacer más grave, serio o molesto. Desmejorar, empeorar. Coger al que huye o va deprisa.

Where the eye mixes agravar and atrapar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. agravar and atrapar follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
agravar
7 ch
atrapar

Look-alike desk: agravar vs atrapar

A purely visual mix-up. agravar ([aɣ̞ɾaˈβ̞aɾ]) and atrapar ([at̪ɾaˈpaɾ]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47236, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

agravar is recorded at frequency rank #35,329, classified as averb, pronounced [aɣ̞ɾaˈβ̞aɾ]. atrapar is at rank #11,907, tagged as averb, pronounced [at̪ɾaˈpaɾ].

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 47236, this pair ranks #121,191 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of agravar vs atrapar

Shared letters: ar. Private to "agravar": gv. Private to "atrapar": pt.

"agravar" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC  ·  "atrapar" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • agravar ← agarvar · aggravar · agraavr · agrabar · agravarr · agravra · agravvar · agrravar
  • atrapar ← artapar · atarpar · atraapr · atraparr · atrappar · atrapra · atrpaar · atrrapar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "agravar" and "atrapar" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([aɣ̞ɾaˈβ̞aɾ] versus [at̪ɾaˈpaɾ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "agravar" or "atrapar" show up more?
"atrapar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,907 in our Spanish list, against #35,329 for "agravar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "agravar" and "atrapar" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "agravar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "atrapar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #121,191 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "agravar" and "atrapar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "agravar vs atracar". 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 #121,191 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