reñidovsresidióTell them apart

Which to use

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

#43,239
“reñido” frequency rank
#44,980
“residió” frequency rank
88219
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature reñido residió
Definition Participio de reñir. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de residir.

Where the eye mixes reñido and residió

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. reñido runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against residió's 7 (CVCVCVV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
reñido
7 ch
residió

Why the eye confuses reñido with residió

A purely visual mix-up. reñido ([reˈɲið̞o]) and residió ([resiˈð̞jo]) 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 88219, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

reñido is recorded at frequency rank #43,239, classified as averb, pronounced [reˈɲið̞o]. residió is at rank #44,980, tagged as averb, pronounced [resiˈð̞jo].

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 88219, this pair ranks #3,900 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of reñido vs residió

Shared letters: deir. Private to "reñido": oñ. Private to "residió": só.

"reñido" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "residió" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "reñido" for "residió" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([reˈɲið̞o] versus [resiˈð̞jo]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "reñido" or "residió"?
"reñido" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #43,239 in our Spanish list, against #44,980 for "residió". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "reñido" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "residió" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #3,900 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "reñido" and "residió" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "rengo vs reñido". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #3,900 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