criticadovscriticanTell them apart

Which to use

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

#10,304
“criticado” frequency rank
#8,362
“critican” frequency rank
18666
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature criticado critican
Definition Participio de criticar. Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de criticar.

Where the eye mixes criticado and critican

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. criticado runs 9 letters (CCVCVCVCV) against critican's 8 (CCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
criticado
8 ch
critican

Why the eye confuses criticado with critican

A purely visual mix-up. criticado ([kɾit̪iˈkað̞o]) and critican ([kɾiˈt̪ikãn]) 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 18666, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

criticado is recorded at frequency rank #10,304, classified as averb, pronounced [kɾit̪iˈkað̞o]. critican is at rank #8,362, tagged as averb, pronounced [kɾiˈt̪ikãn].

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 18666, this pair ranks #266,961 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of criticado vs critican

Shared letters: acirt. Private to "criticado": do. Private to "critican": n.

"criticado" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCVCV  ·  "critican" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • criticado ← ccriticado · cirticado · criitcado · critciado · critiacdo · criticaddo · criticaod · criticcado
  • critican ← ccritican · cirtican · criitcan · critcian · critiacn · criticann · criticcan · criticna

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "criticado" for "critican" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([kɾit̪iˈkað̞o] versus [kɾiˈt̪ikãn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "criticado" vs "critican" - which ranks higher?
"critican" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,362 in our Spanish list, against #10,304 for "criticado". 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 "criticado" and "critican" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "criticado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "critican" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #266,961 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "criticado" and "critican" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "criticado vs criticamos". 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 #266,961 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