calco
Spanish, noun
calco is spelled C-A-L-C-O (5 letters) and appears about once in every 2 million words in written Spanish, the 46,983rd most frequent Spanish word form (wordfreq, 2021 data). Calco is a Spanish masculine noun meaning “the action of copying or reproducing something” (English Wiktionary, September 2026). It is also a first-person singular present indicative of calcar. With an accent, calcó is a different word: “third-person singular preterite indicative of calcar”. The Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario) defines it as “Acción y efecto de calcar”.
What does calco mean in English?
noun
- 1
masculinethe action of copying or reproducing something
- 2
masculinecopy
- 3
masculineimitation, reproduction
- 4
colloquialmasculineshoe
- 5
masculinea calque
verb
- 1
first-person singular present indicative of calcar
verb
- 1
third-person singular preterite indicative of calcar
Source: English Wiktionary, Spanish section, dump of September 2, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0).
How Spanish dictionaries define it
noun: 1. Acción y efecto de calcar 2. Copia calcada de un original 3. Por extensión, copia muy similar al original 4. Expresión lingüística cuya estructura o semántica se ha adoptado del equivalente en otro idioma
The definition in the Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario), in Spanish.
Source: Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario), dump of September 1, 2026 (CC BY-SA 4.0), through kaikki.org.
Forms of calco
- calcos plural
Source: English Wiktionary and Spanish Wiktionary (Wikcionario) (dumps of September 2, 2026 and September 1, 2026).
English words that translate to calco
Source: the translation tables of the English Wiktionary, dump of September 2, 2026.
How common is calco in Spanish?
calco appears about once in every 2 million words in written Spanish.
Source: written frequency: wordfreq 3.1 (a 2021 snapshot of Wikipedia, subtitles, news, books, web text and social media).