cagadovscitadoTell them apart

Quick tell: cagado is a adjective, citado is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#15,296
“cagado” frequency rank
#5,291
“citado” frequency rank
20587
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cagado citado
Definition Que contiene excrementos. Participio de citar.

Where the eye mixes cagado and citado

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
cagado
6 ch
citado

Look-alike desk: cagado vs citado

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cagado is [kaˈɣ̞að̞o] while citado is [siˈt̪að̞o]. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20587, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cagado is recorded at frequency rank #15,296, classified as anadj, pronounced [kaˈɣ̞að̞o]. citado is at rank #5,291, tagged as averb, pronounced [siˈt̪að̞o].

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 20587, this pair ranks #258,658 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cagado vs citado

Shared letters: acdo. Private to "cagado": g. Private to "citado": it.

"cagado" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "citado" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cagadoacgado · caagdo · cagaddo · cagaod · cagdao · caggado · ccagado · cgaado
  • citadoccitado · ciatdo · citaddo · citaod · citdao · cittado · ctiado · ictado

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cagado" and "citado" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cagado" is an adjective and "citado" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "cagado" or "citado" show up more?
"citado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,291 in our Spanish list, against #15,296 for "cagado". 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 "cagado" and "citado" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cagado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "citado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #258,658 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cagado" and "citado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cagado vs cenado". 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 #258,658 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