depilaciónvsdesolaciónWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#40,750
“depilación” frequency rank
#29,157
“desolación” frequency rank
69907
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature depilación desolación
Definition Remoción del vello. Desconsuelo, angustia, aflicción.

Where the eye mixes depilación and desolación

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. depilación and desolación follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

10 ch
depilación
10 ch
desolación

Visual trap between depilación and desolación

A purely visual mix-up. depilación ([d̪epilaˈsjõn]) and desolación ([d̪esolaˈsjõn]) 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 69907, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

depilación is recorded at frequency rank #40,750, classified as anoun, pronounced [d̪epilaˈsjõn]. desolación is at rank #29,157, tagged as anoun, pronounced [d̪esolaˈsjõn].

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 69907, this pair ranks #30,943 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of depilación vs desolación

Shared letters: acdeilnó. Private to "depilación": p. Private to "desolación": os.

"depilación" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVCVVC  ·  "desolación" · 10 letters · shape CVCVCVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "depilación" for "desolación" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([d̪epilaˈsjõn] versus [d̪esolaˈsjõn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "depilación" or "desolación"?
"desolación" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #29,157 in our Spanish list, against #40,750 for "depilación". 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 "depilación" and "desolación" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "depilación" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "desolación" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #30,943 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "depilación" and "desolación" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "depilación vs dilación". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #30,943 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