señalavssensataTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#2,637
“señala” frequency rank
#27,009
“sensata” frequency rank
29646
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature señala sensata
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de señalar. Forma del femenino de sensato.

Where the eye mixes señala and sensata

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

6 ch
señala
7 ch
sensata

Visual trap between señala and sensata

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: señala is [seˈɲala] while sensata is [sẽnˈsat̪a]. 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 29646, 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]. sensata is at rank #27,009, tagged as anadj, pronounced [sẽnˈsat̪a].

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 29646, this pair ranks #215,938 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of señala vs sensata

Shared letters: aes. Private to "señala": lñ. Private to "sensata": nt.

"señala" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "sensata" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • sensata ← censata · esnsata · senasta · sennsata · sensaat · sensatta · senssata · senstaa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "señala" for "sensata" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "señala" is a verb and "sensata" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "señala" or "sensata" show up more?
"señala" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #2,637 in our Spanish list, against #27,009 for "sensata". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "señala" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "sensata" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #215,938 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "señala" and "sensata" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "sensata vs sensatas". 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 #215,938 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