excedevsexcelWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#18,828
“excede” frequency rank
#16,334
“excel” frequency rank
35162
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature excede excel
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de exceder. Aventajar.

Where the eye mixes excede and excel

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
excede
5 ch
excel

Why the eye confuses excede with excel

A purely visual mix-up. excede ([ekˈseð̞e]) and excel (/ɪkˈsɛl/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35162, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

excede is recorded at frequency rank #18,828, classified as averb, pronounced [ekˈseð̞e]. excel is at rank #16,334, tagged as averb, pronounced /ɪkˈsɛl/.

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 35162, this pair ranks #187,570 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of excede vs excel

Shared letters: cex. Private to "excede": d. Private to "excel": l.

"excede" · 6 letters · shape VCCVCV  ·  "excel" · 5 letters · shape VCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • excedeecxede · exccede · excdee · excedde · exceed · execde · exsede · exxcede
  • excelecxel · exccel · excell · excle · execl · exsel · exxcel · xecel

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "excede" and "excel" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ekˈseð̞e] versus /ɪkˈsɛl/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "excede" vs "excel" - which ranks higher?
"excel" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,334 in our Spanish list, against #18,828 for "excede". 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 "excede" and "excel" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "excede" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "excel" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #187,570 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "excede" and "excel" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "excede vs excedió". 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 #187,570 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