maderavsmoderarWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: madera is a noun, moderar is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“madera” is a noun and “moderar” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,780
“madera” frequency rank
#28,458
“moderar” frequency rank
30238
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature madera moderar
Definition Tejido duro, formado por fibras de celulosa incrustadas en una red de lignina, que forma la parte principal del tronco y ramaje de los árboles debajo de la corteza. Arreglar alguna cosa, buscando evitar abusos.

Where the eye mixes madera and moderar

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

6 ch
madera
7 ch
moderar

Look-alike desk: madera vs moderar

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: madera is [maˈð̞eɾa] while moderar is [moð̞eˈɾaɾ]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 30238, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

madera is recorded at frequency rank #1,780, classified as anoun, pronounced [maˈð̞eɾa]. moderar is at rank #28,458, tagged as averb, pronounced [moð̞eˈɾaɾ].

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 30238, this pair ranks #212,970 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of madera vs moderar

Shared letters: ademr. Private to "madera": -. Private to "moderar": o.

"madera" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "moderar" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • maderaamdera · maddera · madear · maderra · madrea · maedra · mdaera · mmadera
  • moderarmdoerar · mmoderar · modderar · modearr · moderarr · moderra · moderrar · modrear

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "madera" and "moderar" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "madera" is a noun and "moderar" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "madera" or "moderar"?
"madera" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,780 in our Spanish list, against #28,458 for "moderar". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "madera" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "moderar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #212,970 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "madera" and "moderar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "modera vs moderar". 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 #212,970 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