morsavsmortTell them apart

Which to use

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

#37,735
“morsa” frequency rank
#36,169
“mort” frequency rank
73904
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature morsa mort
Definition (Odobenus rosmarus) Mamífero pinnípedo semiacuático de gran tamaño que habita en los mares ártico. Los machos superan los 3,5 m de largo y los 1.800 kg de peso, con el cuerpo fusiforme y las extremidades reducidas a aletas; su rasgo más distintivo es la extrema longitud de los colmillos, que salen de la boca superando los 50 cm de longitud. La piel es gruesa, cubierta de un corto y duro pelaje, y poseen una importante capa de grasa subcutánea. Son piscívoros. Forman manadas numerosas, y alcanzan los 50 años de edad. Muerte.

Where the eye mixes morsa and mort

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. morsa runs 5 letters (CVCCV) against mort's 4 (CVCC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

5 ch
morsa
4 ch
mort

Visual trap between morsa and mort

A purely visual mix-up. morsa ([ˈmoɾsa]) and mort ([ˈmɔɾt]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 73904, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

morsa is recorded at frequency rank #37,735, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈmoɾsa]. mort is at rank #36,169, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmɔɾt].

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 73904, this pair ranks #22,351 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of morsa vs mort

Shared letters: mor. Private to "morsa": as. Private to "mort": t.

"morsa" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "mort" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • morsa ← mmorsa · moras · morrsa · morssa · mosra · mrosa · omrsa
  • mort ← mmort · morrt · mortt · motr · mrot · omrt

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "morsa" for "mort" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈmoɾsa] versus [ˈmɔɾt]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "morsa" or "mort" show up more?
"mort" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #36,169 in our Spanish list, against #37,735 for "morsa". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "morsa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "mort" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #22,351 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "morsa" and "mort" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "morral vs morsa". 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 #22,351 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