decovsdedoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#41,289
“deco” frequency rank
#2,823
“dedo” frequency rank
44112
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature deco dedo
Definition Decoración. Cada uno de los apéndices en que termina la mano.

Where the eye mixes deco and dedo

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

4 ch
deco
4 ch
dedo

Look-alike desk: deco vs dedo

A purely visual mix-up. deco ([ˈd̪eko]) and dedo ([ˈd̪eð̞o]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - c in “deco” becomes d in “dedo”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44112, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

deco is recorded at frequency rank #41,289, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈd̪eko]. dedo is at rank #2,823, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈd̪eð̞o].

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 44112, this pair ranks #138,841 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of deco vs dedo

Shared letters: deo. Private to "deco": c. Private to "dedo": -.

"deco" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "dedo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • decodceo · ddeco · decco · deoc · edco
  • dedoddedo · ddeo · deddo · deod · eddo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "deco" for "dedo" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈd̪eko] versus [ˈd̪eð̞o]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "deco" or "dedo" show up more?
"dedo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,823 in our Spanish list, against #41,289 for "deco". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "deco" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dedo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #138,841 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "deco" and "dedo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "deco vs Deva". 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 #138,841 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