difuntavsdifuntoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#28,733
“difunta” frequency rank
#10,829
“difunto” frequency rank
39562
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature difunta difunto
Definition Forma del femenino singular de difunto. Dicho de una persona, que no tiene vida, en sentido real o figurado.

Where the eye mixes difunta and difunto

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. difunta and difunto follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
difunta
7 ch
difunto

Why the eye confuses difunta with difunto

A purely visual mix-up. difunta ([d̪iˈfũn̪t̪a]) and difunto ([d̪iˈfũn̪t̪o]) 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 - a in “difunta” becomes o in “difunto”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39562, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

difunta is recorded at frequency rank #28,733, classified as anadj, pronounced [d̪iˈfũn̪t̪a]. difunto is at rank #10,829, tagged as anadj, pronounced [d̪iˈfũn̪t̪o].

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 39562, this pair ranks #163,821 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of difunta vs difunto

Shared letters: dfintu. Private to "difunta": a. Private to "difunto": o.

"difunta" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV  ·  "difunto" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • difunta ← ddifunta · dfiunta · diffunta · difnuta · difunat · difunnta · difuntta · difutna
  • difunto ← ddifunto · dfiunto · diffunto · difnuto · difunnto · difunot · difuntto · difutno

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "difunta" for "difunto" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([d̪iˈfũn̪t̪a] versus [d̪iˈfũn̪t̪o]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "difunta" or "difunto"?
"difunto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,829 in our Spanish list, against #28,733 for "difunta". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "difunta" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "difunto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #163,821 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "difunta" and "difunto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "difunda vs difunta". 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 #163,821 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