degradadovsderramadoWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#28,320
“degradado” frequency rank
#30,418
“derramado” frequency rank
58738
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature degradado derramado
Definition Acción o efecto de degradar. Participio de derramar.

Where the eye mixes degradado and derramado

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. degradado and derramado follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

9 ch
degradado
9 ch
derramado

Visual trap between degradado and derramado

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: degradado is [d̪eɣ̞ɾaˈð̞að̞o] while derramado is [d̪eraˈmað̞o]. 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 58738, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

degradado is recorded at frequency rank #28,320, classified as anoun, pronounced [d̪eɣ̞ɾaˈð̞að̞o]. derramado is at rank #30,418, tagged as averb, pronounced [d̪eraˈmað̞o].

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 58738, this pair ranks #65,327 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of degradado vs derramado

Shared letters: adeor. Private to "degradado": g. Private to "derramado": m.

"degradado" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCV  ·  "derramado" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • degradado ← ddegradado · degardado · deggradado · degraaddo · degradaddo · degradaod · degraddado · degraddao
  • derramado ← dderramado · deramado · derarmado · derraamdo · derramaddo · derramaod · derramdao · derrammado

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "degradado" and "derramado" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "degradado" is a noun and "derramado" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "degradado" or "derramado" show up more?
"degradado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,320 in our Spanish list, against #30,418 for "derramado". 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 "degradado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "derramado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #65,327 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "degradado" and "derramado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "depravado vs derramado". 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 #65,327 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