🔹 Deverbal Adjectives Ending in -dor / -dora

The suffix -dor/-dora forms adjectives from verbs. Most have an active interpretation that can be paraphrased as "that which V's" or "someone/something characterized by V-ing":

• ensordecer → ruido ensordecedor — noise that deafens
• investigar → labor investigadora — work related to researching
• madrugar → persona madrugadora — person who habitually gets up early

The thematic vowel of the infinitive is normally preserved:

• -ar → -ador/-adora: revel-a-dor
• -er → -edor/-edora: conmov-e-dor
• -ir → -idor/-idora: cumpl-i-dor

These adjectives agree in gender and number: trabajador, trabajadora, trabajadores, trabajadoras. Many can also function as nouns: una persona investigadora versus una investigadora.

The RAE describes these properties in the NGLE. (RAE, Nueva gramática de la lengua española)

Reading the Notes column

Two warnings appear throughout the table, and both matter more than the translations:

• more common: X-nte — the -dor form exists, but native speakers normally use the -nte competitor. Using the -dor form here will sound wrong.
• usually a noun (device) — the word is far more frequent as the name of a machine or object than as an adjective. It still works as an adjective, but expect the noun reading first.

How this table is organized

The entries are grouped into five thematic blocks rather than ranked by raw frequency. Corpus frequency lists for this suffix are unreliable, because they merge adjectival and nominal uses of the same lemma. Thematic grouping is more useful for study and easier to consult. (RAE: CORPES XXI)