letalvsletalesWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#10,365
“letal” frequency rank
#24,210
“letales” frequency rank
34575
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature letal letales
Definition Que provoca o puede causar la muerte Forma del plural de letal.

Where the eye mixes letal and letales

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

5 ch
letal
7 ch
letales

Visual trap between letal and letales

A purely visual mix-up. letal ([leˈt̪al]) and letales ([leˈt̪ales]) 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 2 extra letter(s) - “letal” sits inside “letales”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34575, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

letal is recorded at frequency rank #10,365, classified as anadj, pronounced [leˈt̪al]. letales is at rank #24,210, tagged as anadj, pronounced [leˈt̪ales].

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 34575, this pair ranks #190,679 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of letal vs letales

Shared letters: aelt. Private to "letal": -. Private to "letales": s.

"letal" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "letales" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • letaleltal · leatl · letall · letla · lettal · lletal · lteal
  • letaleseltales · leatles · letaels · letaless · letalles · letalse · letlaes · lettales

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "letal" and "letales" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([leˈt̪al] versus [leˈt̪ales]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "letal" vs "letales" - which ranks higher?
"letal" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,365 in our Spanish list, against #24,210 for "letales". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "letal" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "letales" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #190,679 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "letal" and "letales" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "leían vs letal". 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 #190,679 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