declinarvsdelinearWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#36,507
“declinar” frequency rank
#45,856
“delinear” frequency rank
82363
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature declinar delinear
Definition Inclinarse hacia abajo o hacia un lado u otro. Trazar las líneas o los límites de una figura.

Where the eye mixes declinar and delinear

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. declinar (CVCCVCVC) and delinear (CVCVCVVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

8 ch
declinar
8 ch
delinear

Look-alike desk: declinar vs delinear

A purely visual mix-up. declinar ([d̪ekliˈnaɾ]) and delinear ([d̪elineˈaɾ]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 4 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 82363, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

declinar is recorded at frequency rank #36,507, classified as averb, pronounced [d̪ekliˈnaɾ]. delinear is at rank #45,856, tagged as averb, pronounced [d̪elineˈaɾ].

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 82363, this pair ranks #9,335 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of declinar vs delinear

Shared letters: adeilnr. Private to "declinar": c. Private to "delinear": -.

"declinar" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC  ·  "delinear" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • declinar ← dcelinar · ddeclinar · decclinar · decilnar · declianr · declinarr · declinnar · declinra
  • delinear ← ddelinear · deilnear · delienar · delinaer · delinearr · delinera · delinnear · dellinear

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "declinar" for "delinear" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([d̪ekliˈnaɾ] versus [d̪elineˈaɾ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "declinar" or "delinear" show up more?
"declinar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,507 in our Spanish list, against #45,856 for "delinear". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "declinar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "delinear" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #9,335 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "declinar" and "delinear" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "deliberar vs delinear". 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 #9,335 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