carestía

[kaɾesˈt̪ia]

/[kaɾesˈt̪ia]/ noun

The verdict

“carestía” is uncommon Spanish (frequency #63,645 among 8,288 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.

#63,645
frequency rank, Spanish
8,288
“C” headwords

According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Ausencia o menos cantidad de la necesaria de algo, en especial de víveres.

Corpus desk

Index ES-carestia · carestía · Spanish

carestía · rank #63,645 · 0 variants · 0 confusables

  • FREQ-RARE #63,645
  • LEN-LONG 8 letters
  • VOW-4 4 vowels
  • CONFUS-0 No pairs
  • VAR-0 0 variants
  • BOOK-DENSE 8,288
  • PHOTO-FINISH careciendo

Nearest frequency peer: careciendo (-1 rank slots)

Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.

Rangos de cola larga cerca de “carestía”

Banda escasa: las barras invierten el rango para que lo raro se lea más corto

corpus weight

What this shows Vista de cola larga: dónde “carestía” se sitúa frente a rangos españoles igualmente raros.

Source FrequencyWords open word-frequency list As of September 3, 2026
Key facts for carestía
PropertyValue
Headwordcarestía
LanguageSpanish
Part of speechNoun
IPA[kaɾesˈt̪ia]
Letters8
Frequency rank#63,645
Misspellings tracked0
Confusable pairs0
SourceWiktionary (kaikki.org)

Cola larga: rango de “carestía” en español

La frecuencia va del puñado de palabras que usamos sin parar (izquierda) a la cola larga que apenas aparece (derecha).carestíacae en esta cola de rareza:

#1#100#1K#10K#100K
← used constantlyrarely used →

El eje es logarítmico: cada tick marca unas diez veces menos frecuencia. Vecinos raros de la misma franja: “careciendo” (#63,644), “Casanovas” (#63,646), “carambola” (#63,643). Entre 8,288 lemas con “C”, “carestía” va en #63,645. Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list.

Rare enough to double-check

carestía is uncommon Spanish at frequency #63,645 among 8,288 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed [kaɾesˈt̪ia]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.

Our edit-distance generator produced no likely misspellings for carestía, suggesting the orthography follows predictable Spanish patterns. We don't track a confusable pairing for this entry, since nothing in our dataset looks or sounds close enough to cause mix-ups.

This entry's etymology isn't recorded, so its spelling is easiest explained by how it's pronounced rather than where it came from. The correct Spanish form is carestía, spelled C-A-R-E-S-T-Í-A.

Definition

  1. 1
    Ausencia o menos cantidad de la necesaria de algo, en especial de víveres.
  2. 2
    Precio elevado de los productos de uso habitual, motivado de la falta de ellas.

Recorded use

Wiktionary example

These source excerpts show how carestía appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.

  1. Cuando comienza el año en miércoles, es señal de grandes catástrofes marítimas, de muchos días de tempestad y relámpagos, de carestía de cereales y de que los reponches y las cebollas subirán mucho de precio.

This word in other languages

Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 Spanish corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do you spell "carestía"?
"carestía" is spelled C-A-R-E-S-T-Í-A. The IPA pronunciation is [kaɾesˈt̪ia].
What does "carestía" mean?
As a noun, "carestía" means: Ausencia o menos cantidad de la necesaria de algo, en especial de víveres.
How do you pronounce "carestía"?
The IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) transcription for "carestía" is [kaɾesˈt̪ia]. Click the speaker icon on the pronunciation badge above to hear it spoken aloud where audio is available.
What language does "carestía" come from?
"carestía" is a Spanish word. PlainSpell covers definitions, pronunciations, and spelling data across English, Spanish, Portuguese, French, and German.
Is PlainSpell free to use?
Yes, PlainSpell is a completely free word reference. You can look up definitions, pronunciations, confusable pairs, homophones, and spelling corrections across 5 languages without any sign-up or subscription.

Similar Spanish words by spelling shape

Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "carestía", not the corpus desk frequency band.

Same letter count

Frequency-ranked Spanish headwords with 8 letters (nearest by frequency rank).

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list