refirióvsresfríoWhat's the difference?

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

Which to use

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

#9,718
“refirió” frequency rank
#45,577
“resfrío” frequency rank
55295
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature refirió resfrío
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de referir o de referirse. Enfermedad de las vías respiratorias superiores, en especial de la faringe y nariz, ocasionada generalmente por virus (resfrío común), o causada por bacterias o de origen alérgico. Se caracteriza por una inflamación de las mucosas con abundante moco, congestión nasal, fiebre y malestar general.

Where the eye mixes refirió and resfrío

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. refirió (CVCVCVV) and resfrío (CVCCCVV) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
refirió
7 ch
resfrío

Look-alike desk: refirió vs resfrío

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: refirió is [refiˈɾjo] while resfrío is [resˈfɾio]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 4 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 55295, 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]. resfrío is at rank #45,577, tagged as anoun, pronounced [resˈfɾio].

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 55295, this pair ranks #79,539 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of refirió vs resfrío

Shared letters: efr. Private to "refirió": ió. Private to "resfrío": osí.

"refirió" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV  ·  "resfrío" · 7 letters · shape CVCCCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "refirió" for "resfrío" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "refirió" is a verb and "resfrío" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "refirió" vs "resfrío" - which ranks higher?
"refirió" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #9,718 in our Spanish list, against #45,577 for "resfrío". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "refirió" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "resfrío" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #79,539 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "refirió" and "resfrío" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "resfrío vs residió". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #79,539 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