precedevsprecedióConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#25,767
“precede” frequency rank
#43,188
“precedió” frequency rank
68955
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature precede precedió
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de preceder. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de preceder.

Where the eye mixes precede and precedió

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

7 ch
precede
8 ch
precedió

Why the eye confuses precede with precedió

A purely visual mix-up. precede ([pɾeˈseð̞e]) and precedió ([pɾeseˈð̞jo]) 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 68955, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

precede is recorded at frequency rank #25,767, classified as averb, pronounced [pɾeˈseð̞e]. precedió is at rank #43,188, tagged as averb, pronounced [pɾeseˈð̞jo].

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 68955, this pair ranks #33,211 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of precede vs precedió

Shared letters: cdepr. Private to "precede": -. Private to "precedió": .

"precede" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV  ·  "precedió" · 8 letters · shape CCVCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • precedepercede · pprecede · prceede · preccede · precdee · precedde · preceed · preecde

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "precede" for "precedió" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([pɾeˈseð̞e] versus [pɾeseˈð̞jo]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "precede" or "precedió" show up more?
"precede" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #25,767 in our Spanish list, against #43,188 for "precedió". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "precede" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "precedió" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #33,211 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "precede" and "precedió" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "preceden vs precedió". 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 #33,211 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