excitadovsexcusadoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#31,783
“excitado” frequency rank
#46,545
“excusado” frequency rank
78328
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature excitado excusado
Definition Participio de excitar. Participio de excusar.

Where the eye mixes excitado and excusado

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. excitado 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
excitado
8 ch
excusado

Visual trap between excitado and excusado

A purely visual mix-up. excitado ([eksiˈt̪að̞o]) 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 78328, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

excitado is recorded at frequency rank #31,783, classified as averb, pronounced [eksiˈt̪að̞o]. 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 78328, this pair ranks #14,616 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of excitado vs excusado

Shared letters: acdeox. Private to "excitado": it. Private to "excusado": su.

"excitado" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCV  ·  "excusado" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • excitadoecxitado · exccitado · exciatdo · excitaddo · excitaod · excitdao · excittado · exctiado
  • excusadoecxusado · exccusado · excsuado · excuasdo · excusaddo · excusaod · excusdao · excussado

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "excitado" and "excusado" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([eksiˈt̪að̞o] versus [ekskuˈsað̞o]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "excitado" or "excusado" show up more?
"excitado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,783 in our Spanish list, against #46,545 for "excusado". 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 "excitado" and "excusado" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "excitado" 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 #14,616 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "excitado" and "excusado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "excavado vs excusado". 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 #14,616 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