deseadovsdesveladoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#8,103
“deseado” frequency rank
#43,518
“desvelado” frequency rank
51621
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature deseado desvelado
Definition Participio de desear. Participio de desvelar.

Where the eye mixes deseado and desvelado

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. deseado runs 7 letters (CVCVVCV) against desvelado's 9 (CVCCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
deseado
9 ch
desvelado

Look-alike desk: deseado vs desvelado

A purely visual mix-up. deseado ([d̪eseˈað̞o]) and desvelado ([d̪esβ̞eˈlað̞o]) 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 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51621, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

deseado is recorded at frequency rank #8,103, classified as averb, pronounced [d̪eseˈað̞o]. desvelado is at rank #43,518, tagged as averb, pronounced [d̪esβ̞eˈlað̞o].

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 51621, this pair ranks #96,984 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of deseado vs desvelado

Shared letters: adeos. Private to "deseado": -. Private to "desvelado": lv.

"deseado" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV  ·  "desvelado" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • deseado ← ddeseado · deceado · deesado · desaedo · deseaddo · deseaod · desedao · desseado
  • desvelado ← ddesvelado · desbelado · desevlado · dessvelado · desvealdo · desveladdo · desvelaod · desveldao

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "deseado" for "desvelado" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([d̪eseˈað̞o] versus [d̪esβ̞eˈlað̞o]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "deseado" vs "desvelado" - which ranks higher?
"deseado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,103 in our Spanish list, against #43,518 for "desvelado". 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 "deseado" and "desvelado" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "deseado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "desvelado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #96,984 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "deseado" and "desvelado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "desvelado vs desvelo". 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 #96,984 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