Which to use
“dead” is an adjective and “día” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #11,749
- “dead” frequency rank
- #76
- “día” frequency rank
- 11825
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | dead | día |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Muerto. | Tiempo que tarda la Tierra en dar una vuelta alrededor de su eje, equivalente a 24 horas. |
Where the eye mixes dead and día
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.
Why the eye confuses dead with día
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: dead is /dɛd/ while día is [ˈd̪ia]. 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 noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 11825, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
dead is recorded at frequency rank #11,749, classified as anadj, pronounced /dɛd/. día is at rank #76, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈd̪ia].
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 11825, this pair ranks #293,732 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.
Orthographic DNA of dead vs día
Shared letters: ad. Private to "dead": e. Private to "día": í.
"dead" · 4 letters · shape CVVC · "día" · 3 letters · shape CVV
Known mistypes of this pair
- dead ← daed · ddead · deadd · deda
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "dead" for "día" ever safe?
In ordinary Spanish text, does "dead" or "día" show up more?
What to do next
Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.
- Full dictionary entry for "dead" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "día" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #293,732 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "dead" and "día" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dead vs Deva". 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 #293,732 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.