contaban
[kõn̪ˈt̪aβ̞ãn]
The verdict
“contaban” is a moderately-common Spanish word, ranked #12,119 in Spanish word frequency and used as a verb.
- #12,119
- frequency rank, Spanish
- 8
- letters
- 13
- tracked misspellings
- 18
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de contar.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | contaban |
| Language | Spanish |
| Part of speech | Verb |
| IPA | [kõn̪ˈt̪aβ̞ãn] |
| Letters | 8 |
| Frequency rank | #12,119 |
| Misspellings tracked | 13 |
| Confusable pairs | 18 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “contaban” sits in Spanish frequency
Spelling & Dictionary Insight
The Spanish entry for contaban is 8 letters long, classified as a verb, and transcribed in the International Phonetic Alphabet as [kõn̪ˈt̪aβ̞ãn]. Corpus data places it at rank #12,119 in overall Spanish word frequency, marking it as uncommon enough that many writers pause before typing it. The dominant gloss from Wiktionary reads: "Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de contar.".
Our generated misspelling index lists 13 likely wrong-spelling variants for contaban, with forms such as "ccontaban", "cnotaban", and "conatban". Every one of these variants traces to a single-character edit -- an added or dropped letter, a swapped consonant, or a vowel swap -- the kind of slip a spell-checker is built to catch. It also participates in 18 confusable-pair relationships, "contará", "costaba", "contada", and more, since the words sound or look close enough that writers reach for the wrong one mid-sentence.
No explicit etymology string is stored for this entry, so any spelling logic here comes from how the word's sounds map to letters, not a documented origin story. The correct Spanish form is contaban, spelled C-O-N-T-A-B-A-N.
Definition
- 1Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del pretérito imperfecto de indicativo de contar.
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as: ccontaban,cnotaban,conatban,conntaban,contaabn,contabann,contabban,contabna,contavan,contbaan,conttaban,cotnaban,ocntaban
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of contaban - counted as single-character edits (an insertion, a deletion, or a substituted letter). The larger the bar, the easier the typo is to spot; one-edit slips are the ones that sneak past readers.
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 "contaban"?
What does "contaban" mean?
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Is PlainSpell free to use?
Using “contaban”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Spanish spelling is C-O-N-T-A-B-A-N - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [kõn̪ˈt̪aβ̞ãn] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Don't mix it up with “contará” - see the side-by-side comparison. contaban vs contará
- Browse more Spanish words and confusable pairs in the same reference. Spanish words
Data Source
Wiktionary (via kaikki.org), licensed under CC BY-SA & GFDL. Word ordering uses an open word-frequency list; misspelling variants are generated by edit-distance from the correct headword.