curadovscursadaWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: curado is a adjective, cursada is a participle, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#16,807
“curado” frequency rank
#47,044
“cursada” frequency rank
63851
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature curado cursada
Definition Que ha recibido un tratamiento especial para ser más duro y resistente. Forma del femenino de cursado, participio de cursar.

Where the eye mixes curado and cursada

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. curado runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against cursada's 7 (CVCCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
curado
7 ch
cursada

Why the eye confuses curado with cursada

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: curado is [kuˈɾað̞o] while cursada is [kuɾˈsað̞a]. 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 (adjective vs participle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 63851, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

curado is recorded at frequency rank #16,807, classified as anadj, pronounced [kuˈɾað̞o]. cursada is at rank #47,044, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [kuɾˈsað̞a].

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 63851, this pair ranks #47,380 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of curado vs cursada

Shared letters: acdru. Private to "curado": o. Private to "cursada": s.

"curado" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "cursada" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • curado ← ccurado · cruado · curaddo · curaod · curdao · currado · ucrado
  • cursada ← ccursada · crusada · curasda · currsada · cursaad · cursadda · cursdaa · curssada

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "curado" for "cursada" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "curado" is an adjective and "cursada" a participle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "curado" vs "cursada" - which ranks higher?
"curado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,807 in our Spanish list, against #47,044 for "cursada". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "curado" and "cursada" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "curado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cursada" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #47,380 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "curado" and "cursada" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "carnada vs cursada". 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 #47,380 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