cuy
[ˈkuj]
The verdict
“cuy” is uncommon Spanish (frequency #56,229 among 77,812 “C” headwords), classed as a noun. The kind of spelling people second-guess.
- #56,229
- frequency rank, Spanish
- 77,812
- “C” headwords
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed May 6, 2026) - Mamífero roedor sudamericano, estrictamente herbívoro. Pesa alrededor de un kilo, vive en áreas abiertas y utiliza hoyos y madrigueras para ocultarse y protegerse; tienen una longevidad de cuatro a...
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | cuy |
| Language | Spanish |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | [ˈkuj] |
| Letters | 3 |
| Frequency rank | #56,229 |
| Misspellings tracked | 0 |
| Confusable pairs | 0 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Where “cuy” sits in Spanish frequency
Rare enough to double-check
cuy is uncommon Spanish at frequency #56,229 among 77,812 “C” headwords, classed as anoun, transcribed [ˈkuj]. Rarity is why readers land here mid-draft. 2 senses are on record.
No misspelling variants are generated for cuy in our index, a straightforward case of a spelling with little room for common typos. 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 headword's origin isn't recorded in our source data, so spelling patterns must be inferred from the word's phoneme-to-grapheme mapping rather than from a documented borrowing chain. The correct Spanish form is cuy, spelled C-U-Y.
Definition
- 1Mamífero roedor sudamericano, estrictamente herbívoro. Pesa alrededor de un kilo, vive en áreas abiertas y utiliza hoyos y madrigueras para ocultarse y protegerse; tienen una longevidad de cuatro a seis años. Los incas domesticaron y criaron estos roedores para aprovechar su carne y su piel. En la actualidad se le cría para usarlo en experimentos científicos y cada vez más, para tenerlos como mascotas.
- 2Buscapiés, cohete.
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
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Using “cuy”
The practical upshot for anyone who landed here from a spell-check.
- The one correct Spanish spelling is C-U-Y - every other letter order is a misspelling in standard orthography.
- Say it as [ˈkuj] (IPA); tap the speaker on the pronunciation badge to hear it where audio exists.
- Browse more Spanish words and confusable pairs in the same reference. Spanish words
Other uncommon Spanish words near this rank
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.