mordervsmordióTell them apart

Which to use

“morder” and “mordió” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#16,907
“morder” frequency rank
#24,959
“mordió” frequency rank
41866
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature morder mordió
Definition Asir y apretar con los dientes una cosa clavándolos o penetrándolos en ella. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de morder.

Where the eye mixes morder and mordió

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. morder (CVCCVC) and mordió (CVCCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
morder
6 ch
mordió

Visual trap between morder and mordió

A purely visual mix-up. morder ([moɾˈð̞eɾ]) and mordió ([moɾˈð̞jo]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 41866, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

morder is recorded at frequency rank #16,907, classified as averb, pronounced [moɾˈð̞eɾ]. mordió is at rank #24,959, tagged as averb, pronounced [moɾˈð̞jo].

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 41866, this pair ranks #151,349 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of morder vs mordió

Shared letters: dmor. Private to "morder": e. Private to "mordió": ió.

"morder" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "mordió" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • morder ← mmorder · modrer · mordder · morderr · mordre · moredr · morrder · mroder

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "morder" for "mordió" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([moɾˈð̞eɾ] versus [moɾˈð̞jo]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "morder" or "mordió"?
"morder" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,907 in our Spanish list, against #24,959 for "mordió". 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 "morder" and "mordió" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "morder" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mordió" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #151,349 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "morder" and "mordió" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "mondo vs mordió". 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 #151,349 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