provocadorvsprovocadosWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: provocador is a adjective, provocados is a participle, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“provocador” is an adjective and “provocados” is a participle - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,293
“provocador” frequency rank
#22,472
“provocados” frequency rank
55765
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature provocador provocados
Definition Que provoca o incita. Forma del plural de provocado, participio de provocar.

Where the eye mixes provocador and provocados

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence. provocador and provocados follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CCVCVCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

10 ch
provocador
10 ch
provocados

Look-alike desk: provocador vs provocados

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: provocador is [pɾoβ̞okaˈð̞oɾ] while provocados is [pɾoβ̞oˈkað̞os]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - r in “provocador” becomes s in “provocados”, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs participle), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 55765, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

provocador is recorded at frequency rank #33,293, classified as anadj, pronounced [pɾoβ̞okaˈð̞oɾ]. provocados is at rank #22,472, tagged as aparticiple, pronounced [pɾoβ̞oˈkað̞os].

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 55765, this pair ranks #77,443 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of provocador vs provocados

Shared letters: acdoprv. Private to "provocador": -. Private to "provocados": s.

"provocador" · 10 letters · shape CCVCVCVCVC  ·  "provocados" · 10 letters · shape CCVCVCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • provocador ← porvocador · pprovocador · probocador · proovcador · provcoador · provoacdor · provocaddor · provocadorr
  • provocados ← porvocados · pprovocados · probocados · proovcados · provcoados · provoacdos · provocaddos · provocadoss

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "provocador" for "provocados" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "provocador" is an adjective and "provocados" a participle, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "provocador" or "provocados" show up more?
"provocados" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,472 in our Spanish list, against #33,293 for "provocador". 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 "provocador" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "provocados" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #77,443 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "provocador" and "provocados" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "provocadas 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 #77,443 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