aradovsardidoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: arado is a noun, ardido is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#32,080
“arado” frequency rank
#45,744
“ardido” frequency rank
77824
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature arado ardido
Definition Instrumento agrícola formado básicamente por una pieza afilada o reja y una pieza que permite su tracción por animales o máquinas. Se emplea para abrir surcos en la tierra. Que se aventura sin temor al peligro.

Where the eye mixes arado and ardido

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. arado runs 5 letters (VCVCV) against ardido's 6 (VCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
arado
6 ch
ardido

Visual trap between arado and ardido

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: arado is [aˈɾað̞o] while ardido is [aɾˈð̞ið̞o]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77824, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

arado is recorded at frequency rank #32,080, classified as anoun, pronounced [aˈɾað̞o]. ardido is at rank #45,744, tagged as anadj, pronounced [aɾˈð̞ið̞o].

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 77824, this pair ranks #15,359 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of arado vs ardido

Shared letters: ador. Private to "arado": -. Private to "ardido": i.

"arado" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "ardido" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aradoaardo · araddo · araod · ardao · arrado · raado
  • ardidoadrido · arddido · arddio · ardiddo · ardiod · ariddo · arrdido · radido

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "arado" and "ardido" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "arado" is a noun and "ardido" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "arado" or "ardido"?
"arado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #32,080 in our Spanish list, against #45,744 for "ardido". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "arado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "ardido" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #15,359 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "arado" and "ardido" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ardía vs ardido". 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 #15,359 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