miedovsmimadoTell them apart

Quick tell: miedo is a noun, mimado is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#487
“miedo” frequency rank
#43,133
“mimado” frequency rank
43620
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature miedo mimado
Definition Emoción de ansiedad difícil de controlar causada por algo que puede causar algún daño físico, emocional, patrimonial etc. Tanto el objeto que causa el miedo como la posibilidad de causar daño pueden ser reales o imaginarios. Que, por demasiados mimos, protección o condescendencia, tiende a ser egoísta y caprichoso.

Where the eye mixes miedo and mimado

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

5 ch
miedo
6 ch
mimado

Why the eye confuses miedo with mimado

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: miedo is [ˈmjeð̞o] while mimado is [miˈmað̞o]. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43620, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

miedo is recorded at frequency rank #487, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmjeð̞o]. mimado is at rank #43,133, tagged as anadj, pronounced [miˈmað̞o].

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 43620, this pair ranks #141,654 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of miedo vs mimado

Shared letters: dimo. Private to "miedo": e. Private to "mimado": a.

"miedo" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "mimado" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • miedoimedo · mideo · mieddo · mieod · mmiedo
  • mimadoimmado · miamdo · mimaddo · mimaod · mimdao · mimmado · mmiado · mmimado

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "miedo" for "mimado" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "miedo" is a noun and "mimado" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "miedo" or "mimado"?
"miedo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #487 in our Spanish list, against #43,133 for "mimado". 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 "miedo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mimado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #141,654 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "miedo" and "mimado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mimado vs minando". 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 #141,654 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