ilimitadovsimitadoTell them apart

Quick tell: ilimitado is a adjective, imitado is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ilimitado” is an adjective and “imitado” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#15,874
“ilimitado” frequency rank
#49,721
“imitado” frequency rank
65595
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ilimitado imitado
Definition Sin límites o cuyo final no puede establecerse. Participio de imitar.

Where the eye mixes ilimitado and imitado

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. ilimitado runs 9 letters (VCVCVCVCV) against imitado's 7 (VCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

9 ch
ilimitado
7 ch
imitado

Why the eye confuses ilimitado with imitado

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ilimitado is [ilimiˈt̪að̞o] while imitado is [imiˈt̪að̞o]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “imitado” sits inside “ilimitado”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 65595, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ilimitado is recorded at frequency rank #15,874, classified as anadj, pronounced [ilimiˈt̪að̞o]. imitado is at rank #49,721, tagged as averb, pronounced [imiˈt̪að̞o].

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 65595, this pair ranks #42,186 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of ilimitado vs imitado

Shared letters: adimot. Private to "ilimitado": l. Private to "imitado": -.

"ilimitado" · 9 letters · shape VCVCVCVCV  ·  "imitado" · 7 letters · shape VCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ilimitado ← iilmitado · iliimtado · ilimiatdo · ilimitaddo · ilimitaod · ilimitdao · ilimittado · ilimmitado
  • imitado ← iimtado · imiatdo · imitaddo · imitaod · imitdao · imittado · immitado · imtiado

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "ilimitado" and "imitado" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ilimitado" is an adjective and "imitado" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "ilimitado" or "imitado" show up more?
"ilimitado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,874 in our Spanish list, against #49,721 for "imitado". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ilimitado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "imitado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #42,186 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ilimitado" and "imitado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "imitado vs instado". 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 #42,186 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