construidovscontraídoTell them apart

Which to use

“construido” and “contraído” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#4,315
“construido” frequency rank
#30,398
“contraído” frequency rank
34713
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature construido contraído
Definition Participio de construir. Participio de contraer o de contraerse.

Where the eye mixes construido and contraído

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

10 ch
construido
9 ch
contraído

Why the eye confuses construido with contraído

A purely visual mix-up. construido ([kõnsˈt̪ɾwið̞o]) and contraído ([kõn̪t̪ɾaˈið̞o]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34713, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

construido is recorded at frequency rank #4,315, classified as averb, pronounced [kõnsˈt̪ɾwið̞o]. contraído is at rank #30,398, tagged as averb, pronounced [kõn̪t̪ɾaˈið̞o].

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 34713, this pair ranks #189,968 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of construido vs contraído

Shared letters: cdnort. Private to "construido": isu. Private to "contraído": .

"construido" · 10 letters · shape CVCCCCVVCV  ·  "contraído" · 9 letters · shape CVCCCVVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • construidocconstruido · cnostruido · connstruido · consrtuido · consstruido · constriudo · constrruido · construdio

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "construido" and "contraído" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([kõnsˈt̪ɾwið̞o] versus [kõn̪t̪ɾaˈið̞o]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "construido" or "contraído" show up more?
"construido" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,315 in our Spanish list, against #30,398 for "contraído". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "construido" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "contraído" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #189,968 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "construido" and "contraído" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "centrando vs contraído". 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 #189,968 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