densevsdeseaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#42,941
“dense” frequency rank
#2,653
“desea” frequency rank
45594
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dense desea
Definition Segunda persona del plural (ustedes) del imperativo afirmativo de darse (con el pronombre «se» enclítico). Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de desear.

Where the eye mixes dense and desea

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
dense
5 ch
desea

Look-alike desk: dense vs desea

A purely visual mix-up. dense ([ˈd̪ẽnse]) and desea ([d̪eˈsea]) 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 3 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45594, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dense is recorded at frequency rank #42,941, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈd̪ẽnse]. desea is at rank #2,653, tagged as averb, pronounced [d̪eˈsea].

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 45594, this pair ranks #130,526 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dense vs desea

Shared letters: des. Private to "dense": n. Private to "desea": a.

"dense" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "desea" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • denseddense · dence · denes · dennse · densse · desne · dnese · ednse
  • deseaddesea · decea · deesa · desae · dessea · dseea · edsea

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dense" and "desea" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈd̪ẽnse] versus [d̪eˈsea]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "dense" or "desea"?
"desea" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,653 in our Spanish list, against #42,941 for "dense". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "dense" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "desea" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #130,526 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dense" and "desea" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "déjense vs dense". 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 #130,526 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