defendióvsdifundióWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#8,507
“defendió” frequency rank
#19,989
“difundió” frequency rank
28496
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature defendió difundió
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 difundir.

Where the eye mixes defendió and difundió

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. defendió and difundió follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCVV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
defendió
8 ch
difundió

Why the eye confuses defendió with difundió

A purely visual mix-up. defendió ([d̪efẽn̪ˈd̪jo]) and difundió ([d̪ifũn̪ˈd̪jo]) 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 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 28496, 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]. difundió is at rank #19,989, tagged as averb, pronounced [d̪ifũn̪ˈd̪jo].

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 28496, this pair ranks #221,744 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of defendió vs difundió

Shared letters: dfinó. Private to "defendió": e. Private to "difundió": u.

"defendió" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVV  ·  "difundió" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "defendió" for "difundió" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([d̪efẽn̪ˈd̪jo] versus [d̪ifũn̪ˈd̪jo]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "defendió" vs "difundió" - which ranks higher?
"defendió" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,507 in our Spanish list, against #19,989 for "difundió". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "defendió" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "difundió" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #221,744 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "defendió" and "difundió" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "difunda vs difundió". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #221,744 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