Which to use
“design” is a noun and “desvían” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.
- #16,813
- “design” frequency rank
- #43,521
- “desvían” frequency rank
- 60334
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | design | desvían |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Una especificación de un objeto o proceso, que se refiere a los requisitos que deben satisfacerse y, por tanto, a las condiciones que deben cumplirse para resolver un problema. | Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de desviar o de desviarse. |
Where the eye mixes design and desvían
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. design runs 6 letters (CVCVCC) against desvían's 7 (CVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.
Why the eye confuses design with desvían
These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: design is /dɪˈzaɪn/ while desvían is [d̪esˈβ̞iãn]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 60334, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
design is recorded at frequency rank #16,813, classified as anoun, pronounced /dɪˈzaɪn/. desvían is at rank #43,521, tagged as averb, pronounced [d̪esˈβ̞iãn].
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 60334, this pair ranks #59,308 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of design vs desvían
Shared letters: dens. Private to "design": gi. Private to "desvían": aví.
"design" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC · "desvían" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVVC
Known mistypes of this pair
- design ← ddesign · decign · deisgn · desgin · desiggn · designn · desing · dessign
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "design" for "desvían" ever safe?
Which is more common, "design" or "desvían"?
What to do next
Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.
- Full dictionary entry for "design" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "desvían" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #59,308 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "design" and "desvían" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "desván vs desvían". 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 #59,308 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.