encerradovsenterradosTell them apart

Quick tell: encerrado is a verb, enterrados is a participle, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“encerrado” is a verb and “enterrados” is a participle - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#9,108
“encerrado” frequency rank
#15,846
“enterrados” frequency rank
24954
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature encerrado enterrados
Definition Participio de encerrar. Forma del plural de enterrado, participio de enterrar.

Where the eye mixes encerrado and enterrados

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. encerrado runs 9 letters (VCCVCCVCV) against enterrados's 10 (VCCVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
encerrado
10 ch
enterrados

Look-alike desk: encerrado vs enterrados

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: encerrado is [ẽnseˈrað̞o] while enterrados is [ẽn̪t̪eˈrað̞os]. 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 (verb vs participle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 24954, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

encerrado is recorded at frequency rank #9,108, classified as averb, pronounced [ẽnseˈrað̞o]. enterrados is at rank #15,846, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [ẽn̪t̪eˈrað̞os].

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 24954, this pair ranks #238,695 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of encerrado vs enterrados

Shared letters: adenor. Private to "encerrado": c. Private to "enterrados": st.

"encerrado" · 9 letters · shape VCCVCCVCV  ·  "enterrados" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • encerradoecnerrado · enccerrado · encerado · encerardo · encerraddo · encerraod · encerrdao · encrerado
  • enterradosenetrrados · ennterrados · enterardos · enterraddos · enterradoss · enterradso · enterraods · enterrdaos

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "encerrado" for "enterrados" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "encerrado" is a verb and "enterrados" a participle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "encerrado" or "enterrados" show up more?
"encerrado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,108 in our Spanish list, against #15,846 for "enterrados". 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 "encerrado" and "enterrados" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "encerrado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "enterrados" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #238,695 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "encerrado" and "enterrados" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "encerradas vs enterrados". 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 #238,695 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