provocavsprovocadaWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: provoca is a verb, provocada is a participle, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“provoca” is a verb and “provocada” is a participle - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#4,543
“provoca” frequency rank
#15,696
“provocada” frequency rank
20239
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature provoca provocada
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de provocar. Forma del femenino de provocado, participio de provocar.

Where the eye mixes provoca and provocada

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. provoca runs 7 letters (CCVCVCV) against provocada's 9 (CCVCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
provoca
9 ch
provocada

Visual trap between provoca and provocada

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: provoca is [pɾoˈβ̞oka] while provocada is [pɾoβ̞oˈkað̞a]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 2 extra letter(s) - “provoca” sits inside “provocada”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs participle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 20239, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

provoca is recorded at frequency rank #4,543, classified as averb, pronounced [pɾoˈβ̞oka]. provocada is at rank #15,696, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [pɾoβ̞oˈkað̞a].

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 20239, this pair ranks #260,210 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of provoca vs provocada

Shared letters: acoprv. Private to "provoca": -. Private to "provocada": d.

"provoca" · 7 letters · shape CCVCVCV  ·  "provocada" · 9 letters · shape CCVCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • provoca ← porvoca · pprovoca · proboca · proovca · provcoa · provoac · provocca · provvoca
  • provocada ← porvocada · pprovocada · probocada · proovcada · provcoada · provoacda · provocaad · provocadda

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "provoca" for "provocada" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "provoca" is a verb and "provocada" a participle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "provoca" vs "provocada" - which ranks higher?
"provoca" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,543 in our Spanish list, against #15,696 for "provocada". 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 "provoca" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "provocada" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #260,210 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "provoca" and "provocada" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "provocada vs provocador". 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 #260,210 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