militarvsmultarWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: militar is a adjective, multar is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“militar” is an adjective and “multar” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#750
“militar” frequency rank
#36,696
“multar” frequency rank
37446
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature militar multar
Definition Perteneciente o relacionado con las fuerzas armadas. Imponer una multa a causa de un delito menor o falta cometida.

Where the eye mixes militar and multar

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

7 ch
militar
6 ch
multar

Look-alike desk: militar vs multar

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: militar is [miliˈt̪aɾ] while multar is [mul̪ˈt̪aɾ]. 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 (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37446, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

militar is recorded at frequency rank #750, classified as anadj, pronounced [miliˈt̪aɾ]. multar is at rank #36,696, tagged as averb, pronounced [mul̪ˈt̪aɾ].

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 37446, this pair ranks #175,257 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of militar vs multar

Shared letters: almrt. Private to "militar": i. Private to "multar": u.

"militar" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "multar" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • militarimlitar · miiltar · miliatr · militarr · militra · milittar · millitar · miltiar
  • multarmlutar · mmultar · mulatr · mulltar · multarr · multra · multtar · mutlar

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "militar" and "multar" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "militar" is an adjective and "multar" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "militar" or "multar" show up more?
"militar" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #750 in our Spanish list, against #36,696 for "multar". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "militar" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "multar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #175,257 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "militar" and "multar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "multado vs multar". 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 #175,257 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