citadavscitarWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#10,112
“citada” frequency rank
#7,522
“citar” frequency rank
17634
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature citada citar
Definition Forma del femenino de citado, participio de citar o de citarse. Avisar, prevenir, emplazar a alguno, señalándole día, hora y lugar para tratar de algún negocio.

Where the eye mixes citada and citar

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

6 ch
citada
5 ch
citar

Look-alike desk: citada vs citar

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: citada is [siˈt̪að̞a] while citar is [siˈt̪aɾ]. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17634, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

citada is recorded at frequency rank #10,112, classified as aparticiple, pronounced [siˈt̪að̞a]. citar is at rank #7,522, tagged as averb, pronounced [siˈt̪aɾ].

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 17634, this pair ranks #271,325 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of citada vs citar

Shared letters: acit. Private to "citada": d. Private to "citar": r.

"citada" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "citar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • citadaccitada · ciatda · citaad · citadda · citdaa · cittada · ctiada · ictada
  • citarccitar · ciatr · citarr · citra · cittar · ctiar · ictar · sitar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "citada" for "citar" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "citada" is a participle and "citar" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "citada" or "citar" show up more?
"citar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,522 in our Spanish list, against #10,112 for "citada". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "citada" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "citar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #271,325 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "citada" and "citar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "citar vs citarse". 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 #271,325 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