despejarvsdespojarTell them apart

Which to use

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

#16,815
“despejar” frequency rank
#49,576
“despojar” frequency rank
66391
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature despejar despojar
Definition Dejar un lugar vacío, retirar o suprimir obstáculos, problemas o amenazas. Privar a uno de lo que goza y tiene; desposeerle de ello con violencia.

Where the eye mixes despejar and despojar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. despejar and despojar follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
despejar
8 ch
despojar

Why the eye confuses despejar with despojar

A purely visual mix-up. despejar ([d̪espeˈxaɾ]) and despojar ([d̪espoˈxaɾ]) 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 a single letter - e in “despejar” becomes o in “despojar”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 66391, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

despejar is recorded at frequency rank #16,815, classified as averb, pronounced [d̪espeˈxaɾ]. despojar is at rank #49,576, tagged as averb, pronounced [d̪espoˈxaɾ].

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 66391, this pair ranks #40,007 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of despejar vs despojar

Shared letters: adejprs. Private to "despejar": -. Private to "despojar": o.

"despejar" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC  ·  "despojar" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • despejar ← ddespejar · depsejar · desepjar · despeajr · despejarr · despejjar · despejra · despjear
  • despojar ← ddespojar · depsojar · desopjar · despjoar · despoajr · despojarr · despojjar · despojra

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "despejar" and "despojar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([d̪espeˈxaɾ] versus [d̪espoˈxaɾ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "despejar" vs "despojar" - which ranks higher?
"despejar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,815 in our Spanish list, against #49,576 for "despojar". 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 "despejar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "despojar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #40,007 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "despejar" and "despojar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "despojar vs despojos". 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 #40,007 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