ledovsleónWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: ledo is a adjective, león is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ledo” is an adjective and “león” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#46,033
“ledo” frequency rank
#1,609
“león” frequency rank
47642
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ledo león
Definition Alegre, contento. (Panthera leo) Felino del Viejo Mundo de gran tamaño, el mayor del mundo tras el tigre y una de las cuatro especies capaces de rugir gracias a la peculiar conformación de su hioides. Es distintiva la frondosa melena que orna el cuello de los machos adultos. Alcanzan los 225 kg de peso; su piel es normalmente pardoamarillenta, adaptada al mimetismo con su hábitat, la sabana africana, adonde están casi exclusivamente confinados hoy, tras haber habitado gran parte de Europa y Asia. Son predadores que forman manadas de un pequeño grupo de machos reproductores, varias leonas y sus crías inmaduras.

Where the eye mixes ledo and león

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence.

4 ch
ledo
4 ch
león

Visual trap between ledo and león

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ledo is [ˈleð̞ʊ] while león is [leˈõn]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 47642, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ledo is recorded at frequency rank #46,033, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈleð̞ʊ]. león is at rank #1,609, tagged as anoun, pronounced [leˈõn].

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 47642, this pair ranks #118,912 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ledo vs león

Shared letters: el. Private to "ledo": do. Private to "león": .

"ledo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "león" · 4 letters · shape CVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ledoeldo · ldeo · leddo · leod · lledo

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "ledo" and "león" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ledo" is an adjective and "león" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "ledo" or "león"?
"león" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,609 in our Spanish list, against #46,033 for "ledo". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "ledo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "león" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #118,912 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ledo" and "león" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ledo vs lens". 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 #118,912 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