muerdevsmuerteConfusable pair

Quick tell: muerde is a verb, muerte is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“muerde” is a verb and “muerte” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#16,909
“muerde” frequency rank
#305
“muerte” frequency rank
17214
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature muerde muerte
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de morder. Fin de la vida, en especial de una persona

Where the eye mixes muerde and muerte

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. muerde and muerte follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
muerde
6 ch
muerte

Look-alike desk: muerde vs muerte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: muerde is [ˈmweɾð̞e] while muerte is [ˈmweɾt̪e]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - d in “muerde” becomes t in “muerte”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17214, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

muerde is recorded at frequency rank #16,909, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈmweɾð̞e]. muerte is at rank #305, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈmweɾt̪e].

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 17214, this pair ranks #273,078 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of muerde vs muerte

Shared letters: emru. Private to "muerde": d. Private to "muerte": t.

"muerde" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV  ·  "muerte" · 6 letters · shape CVVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • muerde ← meurde · mmuerde · muedre · muerdde · muered · muerrde · murede · umerde
  • muerte ← meurte · mmuerte · mueret · muerrte · muertte · muetre · murete · umerte

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "muerde" and "muerte" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "muerde" is a verb and "muerte" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "muerde" vs "muerte" - which ranks higher?
"muerte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #305 in our Spanish list, against #16,909 for "muerde". 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 "muerde" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "muerte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #273,078 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "muerde" and "muerte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "muerde vs murder". 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 #273,078 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