salíanvsSatánTell them apart

Quick tell: salían is a verb, Satán is a name, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“salían” is a verb and “Satán” is a name - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#12,249
“salían” frequency rank
#26,615
“Satán” frequency rank
38864
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature salían Satán
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de salir o de salirse. Término con que las religiones abrahámicas designan a una entidad suprasensible que representa la encarnación suprema del mal, personificada en el ángel caído que desobedeció y se rebeló contra los mandatos de Dios.

Where the eye mixes salían and Satán

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

6 ch
salían
5 ch
Satán

Why the eye confuses salían with Satán

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: salían is [saˈliãn] while Satán is [saˈt̪ãn]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs name), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38864, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

salían is recorded at frequency rank #12,249, classified as averb, pronounced [saˈliãn]. Satán is at rank #26,615, tagged as aname, pronounced [saˈt̪ãn].

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 38864, this pair ranks #167,681 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of salían vs Satán

Shared letters: ans. Private to "salían": . Private to "Satán": .

"salían" · 6 letters · shape CVCVVC  ·  "Satán" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "salían" for "Satán" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "salían" is a verb and "Satán" a name, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "salían" or "Satán" show up more?
"salían" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,249 in our Spanish list, against #26,615 for "Satán". 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 "salían" and "Satán" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "salían" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "Satán" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #167,681 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "salían" and "Satán" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "Satán vs sotana". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #167,681 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