dominavsdominabaTell them apart

Which to use

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

#11,027
“domina” frequency rank
#28,345
“dominaba” frequency rank
39372
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature domina dominaba
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de dominar. Primera persona del singular (yo) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de dominar.

Where the eye mixes domina and dominaba

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. domina runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against dominaba's 8 (CVCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
domina
8 ch
dominaba

Visual trap between domina and dominaba

A purely visual mix-up. domina ([d̪oˈmina]) and dominaba ([d̪omiˈnaβ̞a]) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “domina” sits inside “dominaba”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 39372, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

domina is recorded at frequency rank #11,027, classified as averb, pronounced [d̪oˈmina]. dominaba is at rank #28,345, tagged as averb, pronounced [d̪omiˈnaβ̞a].

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 39372, this pair ranks #164,859 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of domina vs dominaba

Shared letters: adimno. Private to "domina": -. Private to "dominaba": b.

"domina" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "dominaba" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • domina ← ddomina · dmoina · doimna · domian · dominna · dommina · domnia · odmina
  • dominaba ← ddominaba · dmoinaba · doimnaba · domianba · dominaab · dominabba · dominava · dominbaa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "domina" for "dominaba" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([d̪oˈmina] versus [d̪omiˈnaβ̞a]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "domina" or "dominaba"?
"domina" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,027 in our Spanish list, against #28,345 for "dominaba". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "domina" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "dominaba" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #164,859 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "domina" and "dominaba" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "denominaba vs dominaba". 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 #164,859 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