acortavsacosaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#46,903
“acorta” frequency rank
#33,908
“acosa” frequency rank
80811
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acorta acosa
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de acortar o de acortarse. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de acosar.

Where the eye mixes acorta and acosa

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. acorta runs 6 letters (VCVCCV) against acosa's 5 (VCVCV) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
acorta
5 ch
acosa

Visual trap between acorta and acosa

A purely visual mix-up. acorta ([aˈkoɾt̪a]) and acosa ([aˈkosa]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 80811, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

acorta is recorded at frequency rank #46,903, classified as averb, pronounced [aˈkoɾt̪a]. acosa is at rank #33,908, tagged as averb, pronounced [aˈkosa].

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 80811, this pair ranks #11,207 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of acorta vs acosa

Shared letters: aco. Private to "acorta": rt. Private to "acosa": s.

"acorta" · 6 letters · shape VCVCCV  ·  "acosa" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • acorta ← accorta · acorat · acorrta · acortta · acrota · aocrta · caorta
  • acosa ← accosa · acoas · acossa · acsoa · aocsa · caosa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "acorta" for "acosa" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([aˈkoɾt̪a] versus [aˈkosa]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "acorta" or "acosa" show up more?
"acosa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #33,908 in our Spanish list, against #46,903 for "acorta". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "acorta" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "acosa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #11,207 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "acorta" and "acosa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acorta vs Alcorta". 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 #11,207 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