dejarvsdotarWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#392
“dejar” frequency rank
#16,827
“dotar” frequency rank
17219
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dejar dotar
Definition Depositar o colocar una cosa en su sitio. Dicho de un hombre: dar o señalar alguna porción en dinero, hacienda o alhajas a su hija para tomar estado; o bien a su mujer antes de casarse con ella.

Where the eye mixes dejar and dotar

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

5 ch
dejar
5 ch
dotar

Look-alike desk: dejar vs dotar

A purely visual mix-up. dejar ([d̪eˈxaɾ]) and dotar ([d̪oˈt̪aɾ]) 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 17219, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dejar is recorded at frequency rank #392, classified as averb, pronounced [d̪eˈxaɾ]. dotar is at rank #16,827, tagged as averb, pronounced [d̪oˈt̪aɾ].

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 17219, this pair ranks #273,053 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of dejar vs dotar

Shared letters: adr. Private to "dejar": ej. Private to "dotar": ot.

"dejar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "dotar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • dejarddejar · deajr · dejarr · dejjar · dejra · djear · edjar
  • dotarddotar · doatr · dotarr · dotra · dottar · dtoar · odtar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "dejar" and "dotar" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([d̪eˈxaɾ] versus [d̪oˈt̪aɾ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "dejar" or "dotar" show up more?
"dejar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #392 in our Spanish list, against #16,827 for "dotar". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dejar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dotar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #273,053 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dejar" and "dotar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "denotar vs dotar". 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 #273,053 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