señalavssenilWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: señala is a verb, senil is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“señala” is a verb and “senil” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#2,637
“señala” frequency rank
#33,330
“senil” frequency rank
35967
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature señala senil
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de señalar. Que ha perdido por la senectud el correcto uso de sus facultades mentales.

Where the eye mixes señala and senil

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. señala runs 6 letters (CVCVCV) against senil's 5 (CVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
señala
5 ch
senil

Visual trap between señala and senil

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: señala is [seˈɲala] while senil is [seˈnil]. 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 adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 35967, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

señala is recorded at frequency rank #2,637, classified as averb, pronounced [seˈɲala]. senil is at rank #33,330, tagged as anadj, pronounced [seˈnil].

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 35967, this pair ranks #183,194 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of señala vs senil

Shared letters: els. Private to "señala": añ. Private to "senil": in.

"señala" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "senil" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • senil ← cenil · esnil · seinl · senill · senli · sennil · sneil · ssenil

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "señala" and "senil" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "señala" is a verb and "senil" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "señala" or "senil" show up more?
"señala" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,637 in our Spanish list, against #33,330 for "senil". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "señala" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "senil" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #183,194 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "señala" and "senil" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sei vs senil". 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 #183,194 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