décadavsdejadaWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#2,078
“década” frequency rank
#25,985
“dejada” frequency rank
28063
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature década dejada
Definition Período de diez años. Forma del femenino de dejado, participio de dejar o de dejarse.

Where the eye mixes década and dejada

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

6 ch
década
6 ch
dejada

Look-alike desk: década vs dejada

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: década is [ˈd̪ekað̞a] while dejada is [d̪eˈxað̞a]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs participle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28063, 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]. dejada is at rank #25,985, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [d̪eˈxað̞a].

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 28063, this pair ranks #223,843 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of década vs dejada

Shared letters: ad. Private to "década": . Private to "dejada": ej.

"década" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "dejada" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dejadaddejada · deajda · dejaad · dejadda · dejdaa · dejjada · djeada · edjada

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "década" for "dejada" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "década" is a noun and "dejada" a participle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "década" or "dejada" show up more?
"década" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,078 in our Spanish list, against #25,985 for "dejada". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "década" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dejada" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #223,843 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "década" and "dejada" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "dejada vs dejadez". 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 #223,843 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