debatidovsdebidoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#26,391
“debatido” frequency rank
#479
“debido” frequency rank
26870
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature debatido debido
Definition Participio de debatir o de debatirse. Participio de deber.

Where the eye mixes debatido and debido

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

8 ch
debatido
6 ch
debido

Visual trap between debatido and debido

A purely visual mix-up. debatido ([d̪eβ̞aˈt̪ið̞o]) and debido ([d̪eˈβ̞ið̞o]) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 26870, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

debatido is recorded at frequency rank #26,391, classified as averb, pronounced [d̪eβ̞aˈt̪ið̞o]. debido is at rank #479, tagged as averb, pronounced [d̪eˈβ̞ið̞o].

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 26870, this pair ranks #229,556 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of debatido vs debido

Shared letters: bdeio. Private to "debatido": at. Private to "debido": -.

"debatido" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV  ·  "debido" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • debatidodbeatido · ddebatido · deabtido · debaitdo · debatdio · debatiddo · debatiod · debattido
  • debidodbeido · ddebido · debbido · debdio · debiddo · debiod · deibdo · devido

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "debatido" and "debido" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([d̪eβ̞aˈt̪ið̞o] versus [d̪eˈβ̞ið̞o]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "debatido" or "debido" show up more?
"debido" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #479 in our Spanish list, against #26,391 for "debatido". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "debatido" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "debido" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #229,556 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "debatido" and "debido" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "debatido vs decaído". 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 #229,556 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