aterradavsaterrizaTell them apart

Quick tell: aterrada is a participle, aterriza is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“aterrada” is a participle and “aterriza” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,565
“aterrada” frequency rank
#31,216
“aterriza” frequency rank
75781
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature aterrada aterriza
Definition Forma del femenino de aterrado, participio de aterrar. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de aterrizar.

Where the eye mixes aterrada and aterriza

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. aterrada and aterriza follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
aterrada
8 ch
aterriza

Look-alike desk: aterrada vs aterriza

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: aterrada is [at̪eˈrað̞a] while aterriza is [at̪eˈrisa]. 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 (participle vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 75781, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

aterrada is recorded at frequency rank #44,565, classified as aparticiple, pronounced [at̪eˈrað̞a]. aterriza is at rank #31,216, tagged as averb, pronounced [at̪eˈrisa].

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 75781, this pair ranks #18,920 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of aterrada vs aterriza

Shared letters: aert. Private to "aterrada": d. Private to "aterriza": iz.

"aterrada" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCVCV  ·  "aterriza" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • aterradaaetrrada · aterada · aterarda · aterraad · aterradda · aterrdaa · atrerada · atterrada
  • aterrizaaetrriza · aterirza · ateriza · aterriaz · aterrizza · aterrzia · atreriza · atterriza

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "aterrada" for "aterriza" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "aterrada" is a participle and "aterriza" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "aterrada" or "aterriza" show up more?
"aterriza" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,216 in our Spanish list, against #44,565 for "aterrada". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "aterrada" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "aterriza" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #18,920 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "aterrada" and "aterriza" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "aterrada vs aterrados". 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 #18,920 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