pedofiliavspedófiloWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: pedofilia is a noun, pedófilo is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#25,396
“pedofilia” frequency rank
#25,755
“pedófilo” frequency rank
51151
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature pedofilia pedófilo
Definition Atracción sexual hacia los niños impúberes por parte de una persona mayor Propio o relacionado con la pedofilia.

Where the eye mixes pedofilia and pedófilo

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

9 ch
pedofilia
8 ch
pedófilo

Visual trap between pedofilia and pedófilo

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: pedofilia is [peð̞oˈfilja] while pedófilo is [peˈð̞ofilo]. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 51151, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

pedofilia is recorded at frequency rank #25,396, classified as anoun, pronounced [peð̞oˈfilja]. pedófilo is at rank #25,755, tagged as anadj, pronounced [peˈð̞ofilo].

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 51151, this pair ranks #99,409 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of pedofilia vs pedófilo

Shared letters: defilop. Private to "pedofilia": a. Private to "pedófilo": ó.

"pedofilia" · 9 letters · shape CVCVCVCVV  ·  "pedófilo" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • pedofiliaepdofilia · pdeofilia · peddofilia · pedfoilia · pedoffilia · pedofiila · pedofilai · pedofillia

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "pedofilia" for "pedófilo" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "pedofilia" is a noun and "pedófilo" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "pedofilia" vs "pedófilo" - which ranks higher?
"pedofilia" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,396 in our Spanish list, against #25,755 for "pedófilo". 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 "pedofilia" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "pedófilo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #99,409 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "pedofilia" and "pedófilo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "pedófilo vs pedófilos". 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 #99,409 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