dilaciónvsduraciónTell them apart

Which to use

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

#49,585
“dilación” frequency rank
#3,115
“duración” frequency rank
52700
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature dilación duración
Definition Demora, retraso o detención de un asunto o actividad por cierto tiempo. Acción o efecto de durar.

Where the eye mixes dilación and duración

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

8 ch
dilación
8 ch
duración

Visual trap between dilación and duración

A purely visual mix-up. dilación ([d̪ilaˈsjõn]) and duración ([d̪uɾaˈsjõn]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 52700, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

dilación is recorded at frequency rank #49,585, classified as anoun, pronounced [d̪ilaˈsjõn]. duración is at rank #3,115, tagged as anoun, pronounced [d̪uɾaˈsjõn].

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 52700, this pair ranks #91,451 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of dilación vs duración

Shared letters: acdinó. Private to "dilación": l. Private to "duración": ru.

"dilación" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC  ·  "duración" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "dilación" and "duración" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([d̪ilaˈsjõn] versus [d̪uɾaˈsjõn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "dilación" or "duración"?
"duración" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,115 in our Spanish list, against #49,585 for "dilación". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "dilación" and "duración" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "dilación" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "duración" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #91,451 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "dilación" and "duración" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "datación vs dilación". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #91,451 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