excavadovsexcusadoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#47,795
“excavado” frequency rank
#46,545
“excusado” frequency rank
94340
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature excavado excusado
Definition Participio de excavar. Participio de excusar.

Where the eye mixes excavado and excusado

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

8 ch
excavado
8 ch
excusado

Why the eye confuses excavado with excusado

A purely visual mix-up. excavado ([ekskaˈβ̞að̞o]) and excusado ([ekskuˈsað̞o]) 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 94340, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

excavado is recorded at frequency rank #47,795, classified as averb, pronounced [ekskaˈβ̞að̞o]. excusado is at rank #46,545, tagged as averb, pronounced [ekskuˈsað̞o].

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 94340, this pair ranks #847 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of excavado vs excusado

Shared letters: acdeox. Private to "excavado": v. Private to "excusado": su.

"excavado" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCV  ·  "excusado" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • excavado ← ecxavado · exacvado · excaavdo · excabado · excavaddo · excavaod · excavdao · excavvado
  • excusado ← ecxusado · exccusado · excsuado · excuasdo · excusaddo · excusaod · excusdao · excussado

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "excavado" and "excusado" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ekskaˈβ̞að̞o] versus [ekskuˈsað̞o]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "excavado" or "excusado"?
"excusado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #46,545 in our Spanish list, against #47,795 for "excavado". 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 "excavado" and "excusado" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "excavado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "excusado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #847 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "excavado" and "excusado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "enclavado vs excavado". 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 #847 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