pagadavspaladarTell them apart

Quick tell: pagada is a participle, paladar is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pagada” is a participle and “paladar” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#16,405
“pagada” frequency rank
#17,776
“paladar” frequency rank
34181
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pagada paladar
Definition Forma del femenino de pagado, participio de pagar o de pagarse. Parte superior de la cavidad oral, formada por el hueso palatino y huesos maxilares cubiertos de una mucosa en su parte anterior (paladar duro), y de músculos y tendones recubiertos de mucosa en la parte posterior (paladar blando).

Where the eye mixes pagada and paladar

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

6 ch
pagada
7 ch
paladar

Look-alike desk: pagada vs paladar

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pagada is [paˈɣ̞að̞a] while paladar is [palaˈð̞aɾ]. 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 (participle vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34181, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pagada is recorded at frequency rank #16,405, classified as aparticiple, pronounced [paˈɣ̞að̞a]. paladar is at rank #17,776, tagged as anoun, pronounced [palaˈð̞aɾ].

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 34181, this pair ranks #192,816 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pagada vs paladar

Shared letters: adp. Private to "pagada": g. Private to "paladar": lr.

"pagada" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "paladar" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pagadaapgada · paagda · pagaad · pagadda · pagdaa · paggada · pgaada · ppagada
  • paladarapladar · paaldar · palaadr · paladarr · paladdar · paladra · paldaar · palladar

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pagada" for "paladar" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pagada" is a participle and "paladar" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "pagada" or "paladar"?
"pagada" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,405 in our Spanish list, against #17,776 for "paladar". 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 "pagada" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "paladar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #192,816 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pagada" and "paladar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "paladar vs peladas". 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 #192,816 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