debidosvsdébitoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: debidos is a participle, débito is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“debidos” is a participle and “débito” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#29,581
“debidos” frequency rank
#19,707
“débito” frequency rank
49288
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature debidos débito
Definition Forma del plural de debido, participio de deber. Obligación de pagar o devolver algo, generalmente dinero, que se había recibido antes.

Where the eye mixes debidos and débito

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

7 ch
debidos
6 ch
débito

Look-alike desk: debidos vs débito

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: debidos is [d̪eˈβ̞ið̞os] while débito is [ˈd̪eβ̞it̪o]. 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 (participle vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49288, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

debidos is recorded at frequency rank #29,581, classified as aparticiple, pronounced [d̪eˈβ̞ið̞os]. débito is at rank #19,707, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈd̪eβ̞it̪o].

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 49288, this pair ranks #109,684 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of debidos vs débito

Shared letters: bdio. Private to "debidos": es. Private to "débito": .

"debidos" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "débito" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • debidosdbeidos · ddebidos · debbidos · debdios · debiddos · debidoss · debidso · debiods

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "debidos" and "débito" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "debidos" is a participle and "débito" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "debidos" or "débito" show up more?
"débito" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #19,707 in our Spanish list, against #29,581 for "debidos". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "debidos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "débito" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #109,684 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "debidos" and "débito" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "debías vs debidos". 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 #109,684 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