eliminanvsexaminanWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#18,808
“eliminan” frequency rank
#43,583
“examinan” frequency rank
62391
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature eliminan examinan
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de eliminar o de eliminarse. Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de examinar.

Where the eye mixes eliminan and examinan

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

8 ch
eliminan
8 ch
examinan

Visual trap between eliminan and examinan

A purely visual mix-up. eliminan ([eliˈminãn]) and examinan ([eksaˈminãn]) 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 62391, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

eliminan is recorded at frequency rank #18,808, classified as averb, pronounced [eliˈminãn]. examinan is at rank #43,583, tagged as averb, pronounced [eksaˈminãn].

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 62391, this pair ranks #52,196 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of eliminan vs examinan

Shared letters: aeimn. Private to "eliminan": l. Private to "examinan": x.

"eliminan" · 8 letters · shape VCVCVCVC  ·  "examinan" · 8 letters · shape VCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • eliminaneilminan · eliimnan · elimiann · eliminann · eliminna · eliminnan · elimminan · elimnian
  • examinaneaxminan · exaimnan · examiann · examinann · examinnan · examminan · examnian · exmainan

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "eliminan" for "examinan" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([eliˈminãn] versus [eksaˈminãn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "eliminan" or "examinan" show up more?
"eliminan" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,808 in our Spanish list, against #43,583 for "examinan". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "eliminan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "examinan" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #52,196 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "eliminan" and "examinan" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "examinan vs examinaron". 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 #52,196 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