despejavsdespejarWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#40,763
“despeja” frequency rank
#16,815
“despejar” frequency rank
57578
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature despeja despejar
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de despejar. Dejar un lugar vacío, retirar o suprimir obstáculos, problemas o amenazas.

Where the eye mixes despeja and despejar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. despeja runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against despejar's 8 (CVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
despeja
8 ch
despejar

Why the eye confuses despeja with despejar

A purely visual mix-up. despeja ([d̪esˈpexa]) and despejar ([d̪espeˈxaɾ]) 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 1 extra letter(s) - “despeja” sits inside “despejar”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 57578, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

despeja is recorded at frequency rank #40,763, classified as averb, pronounced [d̪esˈpexa]. despejar is at rank #16,815, tagged as averb, pronounced [d̪espeˈxaɾ].

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 57578, this pair ranks #69,937 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of despeja vs despejar

Shared letters: adejps. Private to "despeja": -. Private to "despejar": r.

"despeja" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "despejar" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • despeja ← ddespeja · depseja · desepja · despeaj · despejja · despjea · desppeja · desspeja
  • despejar ← ddespejar · depsejar · desepjar · despeajr · despejarr · despejjar · despejra · despjear

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "despeja" and "despejar" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([d̪esˈpexa] versus [d̪espeˈxaɾ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "despeja" or "despejar" show up more?
"despejar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,815 in our Spanish list, against #40,763 for "despeja". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "despeja" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "despejar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #69,937 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "despeja" and "despejar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "despeja vs despojar". 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 #69,937 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