decenavsdiseñaWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#25,593
“decena” frequency rank
#26,005
“diseña” frequency rank
51598
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature decena diseña
Definition Conjunto formado por diez elementos. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de diseñar.

Where the eye mixes decena and diseña

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. decena and diseña follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
decena
6 ch
diseña

Look-alike desk: decena vs diseña

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: decena is [d̪eˈsena] while diseña is [d̪iˈseɲa]. 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 51598, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

decena is recorded at frequency rank #25,593, classified as anoun, pronounced [d̪eˈsena]. diseña is at rank #26,005, tagged as averb, pronounced [d̪iˈseɲa].

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 51598, this pair ranks #97,094 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of decena vs diseña

Shared letters: ade. Private to "decena": cn. Private to "diseña": isñ.

"decena" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "diseña" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • decena ← dceena · ddecena · deccena · decenna · decnea · deecna · edcena

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "decena" and "diseña" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "decena" is a noun and "diseña" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "decena" or "diseña" show up more?
"decena" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,593 in our Spanish list, against #26,005 for "diseña". 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 "decena" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "diseña" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #97,094 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "decena" and "diseña" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "diseña vs dispensa". 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 #97,094 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