defendióvsdefinióWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#8,507
“defendió” frequency rank
#13,220
“definió” frequency rank
21727
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature defendió definió
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de defender o de defenderse. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de definir o de definirse.

Where the eye mixes defendió and definió

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. defendió runs 8 letters (CVCVCCVV) against definió's 7 (CVCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
defendió
7 ch
definió

Why the eye confuses defendió with definió

A purely visual mix-up. defendió ([d̪efẽn̪ˈd̪jo]) and definió ([d̪efiˈnjo]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 21727, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

defendió is recorded at frequency rank #8,507, classified as averb, pronounced [d̪efẽn̪ˈd̪jo]. definió is at rank #13,220, tagged as averb, pronounced [d̪efiˈnjo].

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 21727, this pair ranks #253,612 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of defendió vs definió

Shared letters: definó. Private to "defendió": -. Private to "definió": -.

"defendió" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVV  ·  "definió" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "defendió" and "definió" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([d̪efẽn̪ˈd̪jo] versus [d̪efiˈnjo]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "defendió" or "definió" show up more?
"defendió" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,507 in our Spanish list, against #13,220 for "definió". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "defendió" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "definió" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #253,612 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "defendió" and "definió" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "definimos vs definió". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #253,612 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