recadovsrodadoWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#31,086
“recado” frequency rank
#22,498
“rodado” frequency rank
53584
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature recado rodado
Definition Acción o efecto de recadar. Dicho de un equino: que presenta manchas de forma circular, usualmente más oscuras que su pelaje base.

Where the eye mixes recado and rodado

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. recado and rodado follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
recado
6 ch
rodado

Visual trap between recado and rodado

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: recado is [reˈkað̞o] while rodado is [roˈð̞að̞o]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53584, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

recado is recorded at frequency rank #31,086, classified as anoun, pronounced [reˈkað̞o]. rodado is at rank #22,498, tagged as anadj, pronounced [roˈð̞að̞o].

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 53584, this pair ranks #87,179 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of recado vs rodado

Shared letters: ador. Private to "recado": ce. Private to "rodado": -.

"recado" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "rodado" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • recado ← ercado · reacdo · recaddo · recaod · reccado · recdao · rrecado
  • rodado ← ordado · rdoado · roaddo · rodaddo · rodaod · roddado · roddao · rrodado

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "recado" and "rodado" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "recado" is a noun and "rodado" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "recado" or "rodado" show up more?
"rodado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,498 in our Spanish list, against #31,086 for "recado". 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 "recado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rodado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #87,179 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "recado" and "rodado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "recado vs regado". 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 #87,179 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