refirióvsrefugioWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: refirió is a verb, refugio is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“refirió” is a verb and “refugio” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#9,718
“refirió” frequency rank
#4,191
“refugio” frequency rank
13909
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature refirió refugio
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de referir o de referirse. Lugar en que ampararse, resguardarse, recibir protección, asilo o acogida.

Where the eye mixes refirió and refugio

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

7 ch
refirió
7 ch
refugio

Look-alike desk: refirió vs refugio

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: refirió is [refiˈɾjo] while refugio is [reˈfuxjo]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13909, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

refirió is recorded at frequency rank #9,718, classified as averb, pronounced [refiˈɾjo]. refugio is at rank #4,191, tagged as anoun, pronounced [reˈfuxjo].

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 13909, this pair ranks #286,101 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of refirió vs refugio

Shared letters: efir. Private to "refirió": ó. Private to "refugio": gou.

"refirió" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV  ·  "refugio" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • refugioerfugio · reffugio · refguio · refuggio · refugoi · refuigo · reufgio · rfeugio

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "refirió" for "refugio" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "refirió" is a verb and "refugio" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "refirió" or "refugio" show up more?
"refugio" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,191 in our Spanish list, against #9,718 for "refirió". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "refirió" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "refugio" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #286,101 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "refirió" and "refugio" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "refirió vs resfrío". 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 #286,101 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