A Complete List of Compound Words in Spanish

If you want to increase your Spanish vocabulary and move to the next level of fluency, learn compound words!

Compound words are all around us, many times we don’t even realize that they are compound words because we are so used to them and we treat them as one single word.

Today, I’ll remind you what compound words are, how can we form them, and last but not least, I’ll give you a comprehensive list of compound words in Spanish.

Are you ready for a new challenge?

What are Compound Words?

You may want to jump directly to our list of compound words, but believe me, it’s going to be better for you to understand some rules behind them first. You’ll see that later, it will take you less to memorize the new vocabulary from the list of compound words.

Compound words are formed when two words are linked together to make a new word. For example ice cream, daughter-in-law, blackboard, etc.

Compound words appear in many languages and can be more or less complicated depending on the specifics of the language grammar. 

German compound words, for example, are infamous for the almost infinite number of elements that you can join in one word. In English, the difficulty lies in how to link the words since the compound word can be one word, two separate words, or use a hyphen to join them.

What you’ll need to learn in Spanish is what words you can join together and how to join them.

Types of Compound Words in Spanish

In Spanish, you can join many kinds of words to create compound words. I’ll divide them into nine groups according to the parts of the speech we join together and in what order. Later, you can find all of them on the list of compound words below.

1. Noun + Noun

You can easily create compound words by joining two nouns together: coche cama, bocacalle, telaraña

• El coche cama – Pullman, sleeping car

origin: coche (car) + cama (bed)

Si quieres, podríamos ir en el coche cama para no cansarnos con el viaje tan largo.
If you want, we could go in the sleeping car so that we don’t get that tired with the long journey.

• La bocacalle – street intersection, entry, turning

origin: boca (mouth) + calle (street)

Tienes que tomar la primera bocacalle a la derecha.
You have to take the first street entry on the right.

• La telaraña – spiderweb

origin: tela (fabric) + araña (spider)

Cuidado en el ático, está lleno de telarañas.
Watch out there at the attic, it’s full of spiderwebs.

2. Verb + Noun

This is the most common type of compound words in Spanish and you will see our list of compound words will be full of them.

It is easy to create this type of compound word. You have to take the verb in the third person singular form and add a plural noun. Watch out, as although the plural noun is used, the final compound word is singular. The plural form will be identical to the singular one and only the article will change: 

el tocadiscos (turntable) – los tocadiscos (turntables).

Most of these compound words are masculine. For example: el rascacielos, el abrelatas, el tocadiscos.

• El rascacielos – skyscraper

origin: rascar (scratch) + cielo (sky)

Creo que no me gustan los rascacielos, le quitan el encanto a una ciudad.
I think I don’t like skyscrapers, they take away the charm of a city.

• El abrelatas – can opener

origin: abrir (open) + lata (can, tin)

Me pasas el abrelatas, por favor.
Can I have the can opener, please?

• El tocadisco – turntable

origin: tocar (touch) + disco (disc)

Los tocadiscos están de moda otra vez.
Turntables are in fashion again.

3. Verb + Verb

You can also form compound words in Spanish with two verbs, although they are not the most common ones. For example: vaivén, correveidile.

• El vaivén – seesaw, sway

origin: ir (go) + venir (come)

Me marea mirar el vaivén del péndulo.
It makes me dizzy to watch the pendulum swing.

• El / la correveidile – telltale, procurer, gossip

origin: correr (run) + ir (go) + decir (say)

Es una persona entrometida y correveidile, intenta evitarla.
She is a nosy and telltale person, try to avoid her.

4. Pronoun + Verb

Another type of compound words are created with pronouns and verbs, for instance: cualquiera, quienquiera.

• cualquier(a) – any, anyone

origin: cual (which) + querer (want)

Él se puede encargar de cualquier situación.
He can handle any situation.

• quienquiera – whoever

origin: quien (who) + querer (want)

Quienquiera que sea, no puede interrumpir mi siesta.
Whoever it is, they can’t interrupt my nap.

5. Noun + Adjective

Another category of compound words are the ones formed by nouns and adjectives. For example: camposanto, pelirrojo

• El camposanto – cemetery

origin: campo (field) + santo (saint, holy)

Entre los restos de aquel camposanto, estaban los de mi bisabuelo.
Among the remains of that cemetery were those of my great-grandfather.

• El pelirrojo – redhead

origin: pelo (hair) + rojo (red)

Siempre he soñado con ser pelirroja.
I have always dreamed of being a redhead.

Take note that because the second element “rojo” starts with the letter “r,” we have to add another “r” inside to maintain the vibrating pronunciation: pelirrojo.

6. Adjective + Adjective

Two adjectives together can also make a new word: altibajos, agridulce, etc.

• altibajos – ups and downs

origin: alto (tall, high) + bajo (short, low)

Cada relación tendrá sus altibajos.
Each relationship will have its ups and downs.

7. Noun + Verb

Same way as you can combine a verb with a noun, you can do it the other way round, and put the noun first: maniatar, hispanohablante

• maniatar – to tie hands off

origin: manos (hands) + atar (tie)

Los secuestradores maniataron a su víctima.
The kidnappers tied their victim’s hands.

• hispanohablante – Spanish speaker

origin: hispano (Spanish) + hablante (speaker)

El número de hispanohablantes en nuestro país aumenta cada año.
The number of Spanish speakers in our country increases every year.

8. Adverb + verb

You can also create a compound word in Spanish by joining an adverb and a verb: menospreciar, dondequiera

• menospreciar – underestimate

origin: menos (less) + apreciar (value)

No menosprecies mi regalo.
Don’t underestimate my gift.

• dondequiera – anywhere, everywhere

origin: donde (where) + querer (want)

Había gente dondequiera.
There were people everywhere.

9. Adverb + adjective

Also, an adjective added to an adverb create new words: bienvenido, malpensado

• bienvenido – welcome

origin: bien (well) + venido (coming)

Bienvenido a mi casa.
Welcome to my house.

• malpensado – evil-minded, dirty-minded, ill-thought

origin: mal (wrong) + pensado (thought)

No seas malpensado; no tenía nada malo en mente.
Don’t be ill-thought; I had nothing wrong in mind.

A List of Compound Words in Spanish

And here you are, a list of compound words in Spanish to quickly jump on a higher level of linguistics.

If you want to learn compound words related to the beauty industry, check out  How to Pamper Yourself in Spanish.

Play Time

Are you ready to play? Download our cards and create compound words. Look at the two elements on one side and try to create a new word with both of them and guess the translation. In the beginning, you can use the list of compound words to help you, but later try to do it without it. Finally, turn round your card and see if you were right!

Practice Time

I know that these are many words to remember but the more you practice, the easier it becomes. Use our list of compound words to create new sentences with the new vocabulary
Don’t forget that it’s always better to practice with another person, and best with somebody that can challenge you and correct any mistakes. You can always sign up for a free class with one of our professional, native Spanish-speaking teachers from Guatemala and practice your newly acquired knowledge about compound words. Don’t forget to have the list of compound words ready for the class!

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Olga Put

Freelance Writer at Homeschool Spanish Academy

I'm a Spanish philologist, teacher, and freelance writer with a Master's degree in Humanities from Madrid. I speak Polish, Spanish, and English fluently, and want to get better in Portuguese and German. A lover of literature, and Mexican spicy cuisine, I've lived in Poland, Spain, and Mexico and I'm currently living and teaching in Madeira, Portugal.

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