irrigaciónvsirritaciónTell them apart

Which to use

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

#27,659
“irrigación” frequency rank
#22,071
“irritación” frequency rank
49730
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature irrigación irritación
Definition Acción o efecto de irrigar. Acción y efecto de irritar o de irritarse.

Where the eye mixes irrigación and irritación

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. irrigación and irritación follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCCVCVCVVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

10 ch
irrigación
10 ch
irritación

Why the eye confuses irrigación with irritación

A purely visual mix-up. irrigación ([iriɣ̞aˈsjõn]) and irritación ([irit̪aˈsjõn]) 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 a single letter - g in “irrigación” becomes t in “irritación”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 49730, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

irrigación is recorded at frequency rank #27,659, classified as anoun, pronounced [iriɣ̞aˈsjõn]. irritación is at rank #22,071, tagged as anoun, pronounced [irit̪aˈsjõn].

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 49730, this pair ranks #107,155 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of irrigación vs irritación

Shared letters: acinró. Private to "irrigación": g. Private to "irritación": t.

"irrigación" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCVVC  ·  "irritación" · 10 letters · shape VCCVCVCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "irrigación" and "irritación" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([iriɣ̞aˈsjõn] versus [irit̪aˈsjõn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "irrigación" vs "irritación" - which ranks higher?
"irritación" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,071 in our Spanish list, against #27,659 for "irrigación". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "irrigación" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "irritación" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #107,155 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "irrigación" and "irritación" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "incitación vs irritación". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #107,155 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