mimavsmimadoWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#36,161
“mima” frequency rank
#43,133
“mimado” frequency rank
79294
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature mima mimado
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de mimar. Que, por demasiados mimos, protección o condescendencia, tiende a ser egoísta y caprichoso.

Where the eye mixes mima and mimado

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

4 ch
mima
6 ch
mimado

Why the eye confuses mima with mimado

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: mima is [ˈmima] while mimado is [miˈmað̞o]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “mima” sits inside “mimado”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 79294, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

mima is recorded at frequency rank #36,161, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈmima]. 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 79294, this pair ranks #13,208 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of mima vs mimado

Shared letters: aim. Private to "mima": -. Private to "mimado": do.

"mima" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "mimado" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • mimaimma · miam · mimma · mmia · mmima
  • mimadoimmado · miamdo · mimaddo · mimaod · mimdao · mimmado · mmiado · mmimado

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "mima" for "mimado" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "mima" is a verb and "mimado" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "mima" or "mimado" show up more?
"mima" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,161 in our Spanish list, against #43,133 for "mimado". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "mima" 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 #13,208 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "mima" 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 #13,208 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