merecidavsmerecidoTell them apart

Quick tell: merecida is a participle, merecido is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“merecida” is a participle and “merecido” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#26,145
“merecida” frequency rank
#8,990
“merecido” frequency rank
35135
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature merecida merecido
Definition Forma del femenino de merecido. Justo. Que ha sido ganado como consecuencia lógica de acciones, cualidades, actitudes o méritos propios.

Where the eye mixes merecida and merecido

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

8 ch
merecida
8 ch
merecido

Why the eye confuses merecida with merecido

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: merecida is [meɾeˈsið̞a] while merecido is [meɾeˈsið̞o]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - a in “merecida” becomes o in “merecido”, and the parts of speech differ too (participle vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35135, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

merecida is recorded at frequency rank #26,145, classified as aparticiple, pronounced [meɾeˈsið̞a]. merecido is at rank #8,990, tagged as anadj, pronounced [meɾeˈsið̞o].

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 35135, this pair ranks #187,704 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of merecida vs merecido

Shared letters: cdeimr. Private to "merecida": a. Private to "merecido": o.

"merecida" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV  ·  "merecido" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • merecidaemrecida · meercida · merceida · mereccida · merecdia · mereciad · merecidda · mereicda
  • merecidoemrecido · meercido · merceido · mereccido · merecdio · mereciddo · mereciod · mereicdo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "merecida" and "merecido" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "merecida" is a participle and "merecido" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "merecida" vs "merecido" - which ranks higher?
"merecido" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #8,990 in our Spanish list, against #26,145 for "merecida". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Eye-level mix-up between "merecida" and "merecido" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "merecida" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "merecido" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #187,704 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "merecida" and "merecido" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "merecías vs merecida". 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 #187,704 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