regadovsrezagoTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#49,894
“regado” frequency rank
#40,521
“rezago” frequency rank
90415
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature regado rezago
Definition Participio de regar o de regarse. Acción o efecto de rezagar.

Where the eye mixes regado and rezago

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

6 ch
regado
6 ch
rezago

Visual trap between regado and rezago

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: regado is [reˈɣ̞að̞o] while rezago is [reˈsaɣ̞o]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 90415, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

regado is recorded at frequency rank #49,894, classified as averb, pronounced [reˈɣ̞að̞o]. rezago is at rank #40,521, tagged as anoun, pronounced [reˈsaɣ̞o].

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 90415, this pair ranks #2,520 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of regado vs rezago

Shared letters: aegor. Private to "regado": d. Private to "rezago": z.

"regado" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "rezago" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • regado ← ergado · reagdo · regaddo · regaod · regdao · reggado · rgeado · rregado
  • rezago ← erzago · reazgo · rezaggo · rezaog · rezgao · rezzago · rrezago · rzeago

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "regado" and "rezago" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "regado" is a verb and "rezago" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "regado" or "rezago" show up more?
"rezago" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #40,521 in our Spanish list, against #49,894 for "regado". 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 "regado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "rezago" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #2,520 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "regado" and "rezago" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "regado vs rentado". 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 #2,520 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