decovsdejaWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#41,289
“deco” frequency rank
#496
“deja” frequency rank
41785
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature deco deja
Definition Decoración. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de dejar o de dejarse.

Where the eye mixes deco and deja

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
deco
4 ch
deja

Visual trap between deco and deja

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: deco is [ˈd̪eko] while deja is [ˈd̪exa]. 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 verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41785, 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]. deja is at rank #496, tagged as averb, pronounced [ˈd̪exa].

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 41785, this pair ranks #151,806 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of deco vs deja

Shared letters: de. Private to "deco": co. Private to "deja": aj.

"deco" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "deja" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • decodceo · ddeco · decco · deoc · edco
  • dejaddeja · deaj · dejja · djea · edja

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "deco" for "deja" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "deco" is a noun and "deja" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "deco" vs "deja" - which ranks higher?
"deja" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #496 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.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "deco" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "deja" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #151,806 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "deco" and "deja" 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 #151,806 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