recaervsretarWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#31,951
“recaer” frequency rank
#37,304
“retar” frequency rank
69255
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature recaer retar
Definition Caer nuevamente. Dicho de un noble: acusar ante el rey a otro noble de alevosía, quedando obligado el primero a mantener la denuncia en buena lid.

Where the eye mixes recaer and retar

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. recaer runs 6 letters (CVCVVC) against retar's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
recaer
5 ch
retar

Visual trap between recaer and retar

A purely visual mix-up. recaer ([rekaˈeɾ]) and retar ([reˈt̪aɾ]) 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 69255, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

recaer is recorded at frequency rank #31,951, classified as averb, pronounced [rekaˈeɾ]. retar is at rank #37,304, tagged as averb, pronounced [reˈt̪aɾ].

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 69255, this pair ranks #32,404 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of recaer vs retar

Shared letters: aer. Private to "recaer": c. Private to "retar": t.

"recaer" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "retar" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • recaer ← ercaer · rceaer · reacer · recaerr · recare · reccaer · recear · rrecaer
  • retar ← ertar · reatr · retarr · retra · rettar · rretar · rtear

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "recaer" for "retar" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([rekaˈeɾ] versus [reˈt̪aɾ]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "recaer" vs "retar" - which ranks higher?
"recaer" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #31,951 in our Spanish list, against #37,304 for "retar". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "recaer" and "retar" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "recaer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "retar" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #32,404 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "recaer" and "retar" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "renard vs retar". 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 #32,404 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