mareadovsmareoWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#35,610
“mareado” frequency rank
#24,223
“mareo” frequency rank
59833
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mareado mareo
Definition Participio de marear. Acción o efecto de marear o de marearse.

Where the eye mixes mareado and mareo

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

7 ch
mareado
5 ch
mareo

Look-alike desk: mareado vs mareo

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mareado is [maɾeˈað̞o] while mareo is [maˈɾeo]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59833, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mareado is recorded at frequency rank #35,610, classified as averb, pronounced [maɾeˈað̞o]. mareo is at rank #24,223, tagged as anoun, pronounced [maˈɾeo].

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 59833, this pair ranks #61,173 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mareado vs mareo

Shared letters: aemor. Private to "mareado": d. Private to "mareo": -.

"mareado" · 7 letters · shape CVCVVCV  ·  "mareo" · 5 letters · shape CVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mareadoamreado · maerado · maraedo · mareaddo · mareaod · maredao · marreado · mmareado
  • mareoamreo · maero · maroe · marreo · mmareo · mraeo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mareado" for "mareo" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mareado" is a verb and "mareo" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "mareado" or "mareo" show up more?
"mareo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,223 in our Spanish list, against #35,610 for "mareado". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mareado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mareo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #61,173 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mareado" and "mareo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mamado vs mareado". 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 #61,173 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