arrugadavsarrugasWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: arrugada is a participle, arrugas is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“arrugada” is a participle and “arrugas” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#43,989
“arrugada” frequency rank
#19,032
“arrugas” frequency rank
63021
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature arrugada arrugas
Definition Forma del femenino de arrugado, participio de arrugar o de arrugarse. Forma del plural de arruga.

Where the eye mixes arrugada and arrugas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. arrugada runs 8 letters (VCCVCVCV) against arrugas's 7 (VCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
arrugada
7 ch
arrugas

Visual trap between arrugada and arrugas

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: arrugada is [aruˈɣ̞að̞a] while arrugas is [aˈruɣ̞as]. 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 (participle vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63021, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

arrugada is recorded at frequency rank #43,989, classified as aparticiple, pronounced [aruˈɣ̞að̞a]. arrugas is at rank #19,032, tagged as anoun, pronounced [aˈruɣ̞as].

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 63021, this pair ranks #50,116 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of arrugada vs arrugas

Shared letters: agru. Private to "arrugada": d. Private to "arrugas": s.

"arrugada" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCV  ·  "arrugas" · 7 letters · shape VCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • arrugada ← arrguada · arruagda · arrugaad · arrugadda · arrugdaa · arruggada · arugada · arurgada
  • arrugas ← arrguas · arruags · arrugass · arruggas · arrugsa · arugas · arurgas · rarugas

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "arrugada" for "arrugas" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "arrugada" is a participle and "arrugas" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "arrugada" or "arrugas" show up more?
"arrugas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,032 in our Spanish list, against #43,989 for "arrugada". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "arrugada" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "arrugas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #50,116 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "arrugada" and "arrugas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "arrugada vs arrugado". 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 #50,116 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