delgadovsdesligadoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

“delgado” and “desligado” are a confusable Portuguese pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#10,167
“delgado” frequency rank
#12,649
“desligado” frequency rank
22816
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature delgado desligado
Definition fino, magro que se desligou

Letter map: delgado vs desligado

Shared letters muted; letters that set delgado and desligado apart highlighted. Shared run: 7. delgado runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against desligado's 9 (CVCCVCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
delgado
9 ch
desligado

Corpus notes: delgado and desligado

delgado and desligado are indexed as a confusable Portuguese pair. We have no recorded pronunciation or part of speech for both members, so the spelling overlap is what we can show you: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 22816, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

delgado is recorded at frequency rank #10,167, classified as anadj, pronounced /dɛɫ.ˈɡa.du/. desligado is at rank #12,649, tagged as anadj.

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 22816, this pair ranks #47,140 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of delgado vs desligado

Shared letters: adeglo. Private to "delgado": -. Private to "desligado": is.

"delgado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "desligado" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • delgado ← ddelgado · deglado · delagdo · delgaddo · delgaod · delgdao · delggado · dellgado
  • desligado ← ddesligado · delsigado · desilgado · deslgiado · desliagdo · desligaddo · desligaod · desligdao

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "delgado" and "desligado" be used interchangeably?
No. They differ by 2 letter(s) in length, but the dictionary glosses above give them different meanings, so swapping one for the other changes what the sentence says.
Frequency check: "delgado" vs "desligado" - which ranks higher?
"delgado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #10,167 in our Portuguese list, against #12,649 for "desligado". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Done with this confusable. These links stay specific to "delgado" and "desligado".

  • Full dictionary entry for "delgado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "desligado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #47,140 of 75,631 scored Portuguese confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "delgado" and "desligado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "desligado vs deslocado". 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 #47,140 of 75,631 scored Portuguese pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list