pecadorvspecadosWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: pecador is a adjective, pecados is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“pecador” is an adjective and “pecados” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#24,593
“pecador” frequency rank
#7,474
“pecados” frequency rank
32067
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pecador pecados
Definition Que peca o ha cometido un pecado. Forma del plural de pecado.

Where the eye mixes pecador and pecados

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence.

7 ch
pecador
7 ch
pecados

Visual trap between pecador and pecados

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pecador is [pekaˈð̞oɾ] while pecados is [peˈkað̞os]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - r in “pecador” becomes s in “pecados”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32067, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pecador is recorded at frequency rank #24,593, classified as anadj, pronounced [pekaˈð̞oɾ]. pecados is at rank #7,474, tagged as anoun, pronounced [peˈkað̞os].

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 32067, this pair ranks #203,917 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pecador vs pecados

Shared letters: acdeop. Private to "pecador": r. Private to "pecados": s.

"pecador" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "pecados" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pecadorepcador · pceador · peacdor · pecaddor · pecadorr · pecadro · pecaodr · peccador
  • pecadosepcados · pceados · peacdos · pecaddos · pecadoss · pecadso · pecaods · peccados

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pecador" for "pecados" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pecador" is an adjective and "pecados" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "pecador" vs "pecados" - which ranks higher?
"pecados" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,474 in our Spanish list, against #24,593 for "pecador". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "pecador" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pecados" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #203,917 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pecador" and "pecados" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pecador vs picados". 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 #203,917 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