delegadovsdenegadoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#7,290
“delegado” frequency rank
#30,020
“denegado” frequency rank
37310
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature delegado denegado
Definition Aquel sobre el que se delega un cargo o una responsabilidad. Que ha sido rechazado, que no ha sido otorgado o autorizado.

Where the eye mixes delegado and denegado

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

8 ch
delegado
8 ch
denegado

Why the eye confuses delegado with denegado

A purely visual mix-up. delegado ([d̪eleˈɣ̞að̞o]) and denegado ([d̪eneˈɣ̞að̞o]) 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 a single letter - l in “delegado” becomes n in “denegado”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37310, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

delegado is recorded at frequency rank #7,290, classified as anadj, pronounced [d̪eleˈɣ̞að̞o]. denegado is at rank #30,020, tagged as anadj, pronounced [d̪eneˈɣ̞að̞o].

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 37310, this pair ranks #175,986 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of delegado vs denegado

Shared letters: adego. Private to "delegado": l. Private to "denegado": n.

"delegado" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV  ·  "denegado" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • delegado ← ddelegado · deelgado · deleagdo · delegaddo · delegaod · delegdao · deleggado · delgeado
  • denegado ← ddenegado · deengado · deneagdo · denegaddo · denegaod · denegdao · deneggado · dengeado

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "delegado" and "denegado" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([d̪eleˈɣ̞að̞o] versus [d̪eneˈɣ̞að̞o]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "delegado" vs "denegado" - which ranks higher?
"delegado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,290 in our Spanish list, against #30,020 for "denegado". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "delegado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "denegado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #175,986 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "delegado" and "denegado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "denegado vs denegó". 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 #175,986 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