complicavscumplidaWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#13,412
“complica” frequency rank
#17,933
“cumplida” frequency rank
31345
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature complica cumplida
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de complicar. Forma del femenino de cumplido, participio de cumplir.

Where the eye mixes complica and cumplida

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

8 ch
complica
8 ch
cumplida

Why the eye confuses complica with cumplida

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: complica is [kõmˈplika] while cumplida is [kũmˈplið̞a]. 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 (verb vs participle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31345, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

complica is recorded at frequency rank #13,412, classified as averb, pronounced [kõmˈplika]. cumplida is at rank #17,933, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [kũmˈplið̞a].

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 31345, this pair ranks #207,506 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of complica vs cumplida

Shared letters: acilmp. Private to "complica": o. Private to "cumplida": du.

"complica" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVCV  ·  "cumplida" · 8 letters · shape CVCCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • complica ← ccomplica · cmoplica · comlpica · commplica · compilca · complcia · compliac · complicca
  • cumplida ← ccumplida · cmuplida · cumlpida · cummplida · cumpilda · cumpldia · cumpliad · cumplidda

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "complica" and "cumplida" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "complica" is a verb and "cumplida" a participle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "complica" or "cumplida" show up more?
"complica" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,412 in our Spanish list, against #17,933 for "cumplida". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "complica" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cumplida" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #207,506 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "complica" and "cumplida" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cumplida vs cumpliré". 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 #207,506 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