décadavsdejabaWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: década is a noun, dejaba is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“década” is a noun and “dejaba” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,078
“década” frequency rank
#5,600
“dejaba” frequency rank
7678
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature década dejaba
Definition Período de diez años. Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de dejar o de dejarse.

Where the eye mixes década and dejaba

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

6 ch
década
6 ch
dejaba

Why the eye confuses década with dejaba

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: década is [ˈd̪ekað̞a] while dejaba is [d̪eˈxaβ̞a]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 7678, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

década is recorded at frequency rank #2,078, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈd̪ekað̞a]. dejaba is at rank #5,600, tagged as averb, pronounced [d̪eˈxaβ̞a].

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 7678, this pair ranks #307,265 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of década vs dejaba

Shared letters: ad. Private to "década": . Private to "dejaba": bej.

"década" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "dejaba" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dejabaddejaba · deajba · dejaab · dejabba · dejava · dejbaa · dejjaba · djeaba

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "década" and "dejaba" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "década" is a noun and "dejaba" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "década" vs "dejaba" - which ranks higher?
"década" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,078 in our Spanish list, against #5,600 for "dejaba". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "década" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dejaba" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #307,265 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "década" and "dejaba" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "década vs decae". 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 #307,265 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