temblóvstemibleTell them apart

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

Which to use

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

#42,173
“tembló” frequency rank
#22,526
“temible” frequency rank
64699
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature tembló temible
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de temblar. Digno o susceptible de ser temido.

Where the eye mixes tembló and temible

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. tembló runs 6 letters (CVCCCV) against temible's 7 (CVCVCCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
tembló
7 ch
temible

Visual trap between tembló and temible

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: tembló is [t̪ẽmˈblo] while temible is [t̪eˈmiβ̞le]. 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 64699, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

tembló is recorded at frequency rank #42,173, classified as averb, pronounced [t̪ẽmˈblo]. temible is at rank #22,526, tagged as anadj, pronounced [t̪eˈmiβ̞le].

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 64699, this pair ranks #44,823 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of tembló vs temible

Shared letters: belmt. Private to "tembló": ó. Private to "temible": i.

"tembló" · 6 letters · shape CVCCCV  ·  "temible" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • temible ← etmible · teimble · tembile · temibble · temibel · temiblle · temilbe · temivle

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "tembló" for "temible" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "tembló" is a verb and "temible" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "tembló" or "temible" show up more?
"temible" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,526 in our Spanish list, against #42,173 for "tembló". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "tembló" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "temible" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #44,823 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "tembló" and "temible" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "tembló vs túmulo". 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 #44,823 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