letradovsletradosConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#26,904
“letrado” frequency rank
#37,690
“letrados” frequency rank
64594
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature letrado letrados
Definition Sabio, docto o instruido. Forma del plural de letrado.

Where the eye mixes letrado and letrados

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence.

7 ch
letrado
8 ch
letrados

Why the eye confuses letrado with letrados

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: letrado is [leˈt̪ɾað̞o] while letrados is [leˈt̪ɾað̞os]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 extra letter(s) - “letrado” sits inside “letrados”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 64594, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

letrado is recorded at frequency rank #26,904, classified as anadj, pronounced [leˈt̪ɾað̞o]. letrados is at rank #37,690, tagged as anoun, pronounced [leˈt̪ɾað̞os].

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 64594, this pair ranks #45,132 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of letrado vs letrados

Shared letters: adelort. Private to "letrado": -. Private to "letrados": s.

"letrado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "letrados" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • letradoeltrado · lertado · letardo · letraddo · letraod · letrdao · letrrado · lettrado
  • letradoseltrados · lertados · letardos · letraddos · letradoss · letradso · letraods · letrdaos

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "letrado" for "letrados" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "letrado" is an adjective and "letrados" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "letrado" or "letrados"?
"letrado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #26,904 in our Spanish list, against #37,690 for "letrados". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

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 "letrado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "letrados" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #45,132 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "letrado" and "letrados" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "labrado vs letrado". 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 #45,132 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