criticadosvscríticasTell them apart

Quick tell: criticados is a participle, críticas is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“criticados” is a participle and “críticas” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#42,367
“criticados” frequency rank
#2,443
“críticas” frequency rank
44810
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature criticados críticas
Definition Forma del plural de criticado, participio de criticar. Forma del femenino plural de crítico.

Where the eye mixes criticados and críticas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. criticados runs 10 letters (CCVCVCVCVC) against críticas's 8 (CCVCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

10 ch
criticados
8 ch
críticas

Visual trap between criticados and críticas

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: criticados is [kɾit̪iˈkað̞os] while críticas is [ˈkɾit̪ikas]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (participle vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44810, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

criticados is recorded at frequency rank #42,367, classified as aparticiple, pronounced [kɾit̪iˈkað̞os]. críticas is at rank #2,443, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈkɾit̪ikas].

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 44810, this pair ranks #134,995 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of criticados vs críticas

Shared letters: acirst. Private to "criticados": do. Private to "críticas": í.

"criticados" · 10 letters · shape CCVCVCVCVC  ·  "críticas" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • criticados ← ccriticados · cirticados · criitcados · critciados · critiacdos · criticaddos · criticadoss · criticadso

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "criticados" for "críticas" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "criticados" is a participle and "críticas" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "criticados" or "críticas"?
"críticas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,443 in our Spanish list, against #42,367 for "criticados". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "criticados" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "críticas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #134,995 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "criticados" and "críticas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "criticados 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 #134,995 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