Which to use
“disculpan” and “disculpar” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.
- #47,075
- “disculpan” frequency rank
- #30,039
- “disculpar” frequency rank
- 77114
- confusion score
Side-by-Side Comparison
| Feature | disculpan | disculpar |
|---|---|---|
| Definition | Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de disculpar o de disculparse. | Alegar descargos, dar razones o pruebas que descarguen de alguna culpa o delito. |
Where the eye mixes disculpan and disculpar
Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. disculpan and disculpar follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.
Visual trap between disculpan and disculpar
A purely visual mix-up. disculpan ([d̪isˈkulpãn]) and disculpar ([d̪iskulˈpaɾ]) 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 - n in “disculpan” becomes r in “disculpar”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 77114, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.
disculpan is recorded at frequency rank #47,075, classified as averb, pronounced [d̪isˈkulpãn]. disculpar is at rank #30,039, tagged as averb, pronounced [d̪iskulˈpaɾ].
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 77114, this pair ranks #16,559 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.
Orthographic DNA of disculpan vs disculpar
Shared letters: acdilpsu. Private to "disculpan": n. Private to "disculpar": r.
"disculpan" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC · "disculpar" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC
Known mistypes of this pair
Frequently Asked Questions
Is swapping "disculpan" for "disculpar" ever safe?
In ordinary Spanish text, does "disculpan" or "disculpar" show up more?
After this comparison
Eye-level mix-up between "disculpan" and "disculpar" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.
- Full dictionary entry for "disculpan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
- Full dictionary entry for "disculpar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
- This pair ranks #16,559 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
- "disculpan" and "disculpar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "disculpado vs disculpan". 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 #16,559 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.