encendidavsextendidaWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#16,323
“encendida” frequency rank
#10,851
“extendida” frequency rank
27174
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature encendida extendida
Definition Forma del femenino de encendido, participio de encender. Forma del femenino de extendido, participio de extender o de extenderse.

Where the eye mixes encendida and extendida

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

9 ch
encendida
9 ch
extendida

Visual trap between encendida and extendida

A purely visual mix-up. encendida ([ẽnsẽn̪ˈd̪ið̞a]) and extendida ([ekst̪ẽn̪ˈd̪ið̞a]) 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 27174, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

encendida is recorded at frequency rank #16,323, classified as aparticiple, pronounced [ẽnsẽn̪ˈd̪ið̞a]. extendida is at rank #10,851, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [ekst̪ẽn̪ˈd̪ið̞a].

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 27174, this pair ranks #228,117 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of encendida vs extendida

Shared letters: adein. Private to "encendida": c. Private to "extendida": tx.

"encendida" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCV  ·  "extendida" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • encendidaecnendida · enccendida · encednida · encenddia · encenddida · encendiad · encendidda · encenidda
  • extendidaetxendida · exetndida · extednida · extenddia · extenddida · extendiad · extendidda · extenidda

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "encendida" and "extendida" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ẽnsẽn̪ˈd̪ið̞a] versus [ekst̪ẽn̪ˈd̪ið̞a]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "encendida" or "extendida" show up more?
"extendida" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,851 in our Spanish list, against #16,323 for "encendida". 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 "encendida" and "extendida" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "encendida" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "extendida" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #228,117 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "encendida" and "extendida" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "encendida vs entendidas". 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 #228,117 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