abortadovsacostadoTell them apart

Which to use

“abortado” and “acostado” are a confusable Spanish pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#46,293
“abortado” frequency rank
#13,598
“acostado” frequency rank
59891
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature abortado acostado
Definition Participio de abortar. Participio de acostar o de acostarse.

Where the eye mixes abortado and acostado

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. abortado and acostado follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
abortado
8 ch
acostado

Why the eye confuses abortado with acostado

A purely visual mix-up. abortado ([aβ̞oɾˈt̪að̞o]) and acostado ([akosˈt̪að̞o]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 59891, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

abortado is recorded at frequency rank #46,293, classified as averb, pronounced [aβ̞oɾˈt̪að̞o]. acostado is at rank #13,598, tagged as averb, pronounced [akosˈt̪að̞o].

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 59891, this pair ranks #60,929 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of abortado vs acostado

Shared letters: adot. Private to "abortado": br. Private to "acostado": cs.

"abortado" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCVCV  ·  "acostado" · 8 letters · shape VCVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • abortado ← abbortado · aboratdo · aborrtado · abortaddo · abortaod · abortdao · aborttado · abotrado
  • acostado ← accostado · acosatdo · acosstado · acostaddo · acostaod · acostdao · acosttado · acotsado

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "abortado" and "acostado" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([aβ̞oɾˈt̪að̞o] versus [akosˈt̪að̞o]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "abortado" or "acostado" show up more?
"acostado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,598 in our Spanish list, against #46,293 for "abortado". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "abortado" and "acostado" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "abortado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "acostado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #60,929 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "abortado" and "acostado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "abortado vs abultado". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #60,929 of 323,831 scored Spanish pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

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

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list