dealvsdecaeTell them apart

Which to use

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

#29,579
“deal” frequency rank
#48,929
“decae” frequency rank
78508
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature deal decae
Definition Ocuparse. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de decaer.

Where the eye mixes deal and decae

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. deal runs 4 letters (CVVC) against decae's 5 (CVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

4 ch
deal
5 ch
decae

Visual trap between deal and decae

A purely visual mix-up. deal (/diːl/) and decae ([d̪eˈkae]) 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 78508, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

deal is recorded at frequency rank #29,579, classified as averb, pronounced /diːl/. decae is at rank #48,929, tagged as averb, pronounced [d̪eˈkae].

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 78508, this pair ranks #14,352 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of deal vs decae

Shared letters: ade. Private to "deal": l. Private to "decae": c.

"deal" · 4 letters · shape CVVC  ·  "decae" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • deal ← ddeal · deall · edal
  • decae ← dceae · ddecae · deace · deccae · edcae

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "deal" for "decae" ever safe?
No. They are said differently (/diːl/ versus [d̪eˈkae]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "deal" or "decae" show up more?
"deal" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,579 in our Spanish list, against #48,929 for "decae". 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 "deal" and "decae" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "deal" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "decae" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #14,352 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "deal" and "decae" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "decae 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 #14,352 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