excitadovsexpiradoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#31,783
“excitado” frequency rank
#45,319
“expirado” frequency rank
77102
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature excitado expirado
Definition Participio de excitar. Participio de expirar.

Where the eye mixes excitado and expirado

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. excitado and expirado 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
expirado

Why the eye confuses excitado with expirado

A purely visual mix-up. excitado ([eksiˈt̪að̞o]) and expirado ([ekspiˈɾað̞o]) 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 77102, 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]. expirado is at rank #45,319, tagged as averb, pronounced [ekspiˈɾað̞o].

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 77102, this pair ranks #16,582 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of excitado vs expirado

Shared letters: adeiox. Private to "excitado": ct. Private to "expirado": pr.

"excitado" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCV  ·  "expirado" · 8 letters · shape VCCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • excitadoecxitado · exccitado · exciatdo · excitaddo · excitaod · excitdao · excittado · exctiado
  • expiradoepxirado · exiprado · expiardo · expiraddo · expiraod · expirdao · expirrado · exppirado

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "excitado" for "expirado" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([eksiˈt̪að̞o] versus [ekspiˈɾað̞o]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "excitado" vs "expirado" - which ranks higher?
"excitado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,783 in our Spanish list, against #45,319 for "expirado". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "excitado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "expirado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #16,582 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "excitado" and "expirado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "expirado vs expiró". 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 #16,582 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