enloquecervsenriquecerWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#32,190
“enloquecer” frequency rank
#18,527
“enriquecer” frequency rank
50717
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature enloquecer enriquecer
Definition Hacer que alguien se vuelva loco o pierda el juicio, la cordura, la razón, etc. Causar locura. Hacer rico o más rico aumentando el dinero, bienes o cualidades.

Where the eye mixes enloquecer and enriquecer

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 8 letters in sequence. enloquecer and enriquecer follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

10 ch
enloquecer
10 ch
enriquecer

Visual trap between enloquecer and enriquecer

A purely visual mix-up. enloquecer ([ẽnlokeˈseɾ]) and enriquecer ([ẽnrikeˈseɾ]) 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 50717, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

enloquecer is recorded at frequency rank #32,190, classified as averb, pronounced [ẽnlokeˈseɾ]. enriquecer is at rank #18,527, tagged as averb, pronounced [ẽnrikeˈseɾ].

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 50717, this pair ranks #101,719 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of enloquecer vs enriquecer

Shared letters: cenqru. Private to "enloquecer": lo. Private to "enriquecer": i.

"enloquecer" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVVCVC  ·  "enriquecer" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • enloquecer ← elnoquecer · enlloquecer · enloqeucer · enloqquecer · enloquceer · enloqueccer · enloquecerr · enloquecre
  • enriquecer ← enirquecer · ennriquecer · enriqeucer · enriqquecer · enriquceer · enriqueccer · enriquecerr · enriquecre

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "enloquecer" and "enriquecer" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ẽnlokeˈseɾ] versus [ẽnrikeˈseɾ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "enloquecer" or "enriquecer" show up more?
"enriquecer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,527 in our Spanish list, against #32,190 for "enloquecer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "enloquecer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "enriquecer" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #101,719 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "enloquecer" and "enriquecer" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "enloquece vs enloquecer". 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 #101,719 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