ejércitovseméritoTell them apart

Quick tell: ejército is a noun, emérito is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ejército” is a noun and “emérito” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#683
“ejército” frequency rank
#30,448
“emérito” frequency rank
31131
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ejército emérito
Definition Conjunto grande y organizado de soldados que combaten en común. Que se ha retirado de un cargo y recibe algún premio por sus buenos servicios

Where the eye mixes ejército and emérito

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. ejército runs 8 letters (VCVCCVCV) against emérito's 7 (VCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
ejército
7 ch
emérito

Look-alike desk: ejército vs emérito

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ejército is [eˈxeɾsit̪o] while emérito is [eˈmeɾit̪o]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 31131, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ejército is recorded at frequency rank #683, classified as anoun, pronounced [eˈxeɾsit̪o]. emérito is at rank #30,448, tagged as anadj, pronounced [eˈmeɾit̪o].

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 31131, this pair ranks #208,615 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ejército vs emérito

Shared letters: eiorté. Private to "ejército": cj. Private to "emérito": m.

"ejército" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCVCV  ·  "emérito" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ejército" and "emérito" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ejército" is a noun and "emérito" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "ejército" vs "emérito" - which ranks higher?
"ejército" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #683 in our Spanish list, against #30,448 for "emérito". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ejército" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "emérito" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #208,615 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ejército" and "emérito" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "emergió vs emérito". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #208,615 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