cu
[ˈku]
The verdict
“cu” sits in 20 confusable pairs (corpus #11,200) as a noun. The look-alike neighbours are the real trap.
- #11,200
- frequency rank, Spanish
- 8,288
- “C” headwords
- 20
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Nombre de la letra q, Q
Corpus desk
Index ES-cu · cu · Spanish
cu · rank #11,200 · 0 variants · 20 confusables
- FREQ-MID #11,200
- LEN-SHORT 2 letters
- VOW-1 1 vowel
- CONFUS-HIGH 20 pairs
- VAR-0 0 variants
- BOOK-DENSE 8,288
- PHOTO-FINISH criticando
Nearest frequency peer: criticando (-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.
Frequency neighbourhood for “cu”
Lower corpus rank = more everyday usage (inverted bar length for readability)
- Contreras
Contreras
88,804 corpus weight
- creyentes
creyentes
88,803 corpus weight
- criticando
criticando
88,802 corpus weight
- cu
cu
88,801 corpus weight
- cuenten
cuenten
88,800 corpus weight
- dejaban
dejaban
88,799 corpus weight
What this shows Bars show where “cu” sits against the nearest ranked Spanish headwords in the FrequencyWords band, not a reprint of letter-browse containment.
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 | cu |
| Language | Spanish |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | [ˈku] |
| Letters | 2 |
| Frequency rank | #11,200 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 20 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Dónde se sitúa “cu” en la frecuencia del español
Easy to mix with look-alikes
The spelling risk for cu is neighbouring look-alikes ("CV", "cup", …), not just typos; it is anoun pronounced [ˈku]. Frequency #11,200 among 8,288 “C” headwords. Gloss: "Nombre de la letra q, Q".
We couldn't generate a plausible misspelling set for cu, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. It also participates in 20 confusable-pair relationships, "CV", "cup", "cum", and more, where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
No documented word history exists for this headword, so its spelling is best explained by sound-to-letter mapping rather than etymology. The correct Spanish form is cu, spelled C-U.
Definition
- 1Nombre de la letra q, Q
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 "cu"?
What does "cu" mean?
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Is PlainSpell free to use?
What to do next
You've looked up "cu". Here's where to go from here.
- "cu" maps to 20 confusable pairs in this vintage; the highest-scored is "CV". View pair
- Usage frequency rank #11,200 among Spanish headwords in this corpus. Corpus statistics
- Browse more Spanish words in the "C" letter cohort. C–Z browse
PlainSpell is a reference corpus, not spelling advice. Verify unusual forms in context.
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.