apeladovsapuradoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: apelado is a verb, apurado is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“apelado” is a verb and “apurado” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,978
“apelado” frequency rank
#23,668
“apurado” frequency rank
67646
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature apelado apurado
Definition Participio de apelar. Pobre, falto de lo necesario.

Where the eye mixes apelado and apurado

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
apelado
7 ch
apurado

Look-alike desk: apelado vs apurado

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: apelado is [apeˈlað̞o] while apurado is [apuˈɾað̞o]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67646, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

apelado is recorded at frequency rank #43,978, classified as averb, pronounced [apeˈlað̞o]. apurado is at rank #23,668, tagged as anadj, pronounced [apuˈɾað̞o].

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 67646, this pair ranks #36,595 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of apelado vs apurado

Shared letters: adop. Private to "apelado": el. Private to "apurado": ru.

"apelado" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVCV  ·  "apurado" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • apeladoaeplado · apealdo · apeladdo · apelaod · apeldao · apellado · apleado · appelado
  • apuradoappurado · apruado · apuardo · apuraddo · apuraod · apurdao · apurrado · auprado

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "apelado" and "apurado" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "apelado" is a verb and "apurado" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "apelado" or "apurado" show up more?
"apurado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #23,668 in our Spanish list, against #43,978 for "apelado". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "apelado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "apurado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #36,595 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "apelado" and "apurado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "apelado vs apenado". 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 #36,595 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