actovsacusoWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: acto is a noun, acuso is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“acto” is a noun and “acuso” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#1,077
“acto” frequency rank
#39,030
“acuso” frequency rank
40107
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature acto acuso
Definition Consecuencia real o potencial de realizar, de llevar a cabo algo. Primera persona del singular (yo) del presente de indicativo de acusar o de acusarse.

Where the eye mixes acto and acuso

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
acto
5 ch
acuso

Look-alike desk: acto vs acuso

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: acto is [ˈakt̪o] while acuso is [aˈkuso]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 40107, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

acto is recorded at frequency rank #1,077, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈakt̪o]. acuso is at rank #39,030, tagged as averb, pronounced [aˈkuso].

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 40107, this pair ranks #160,875 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of acto vs acuso

Shared letters: aco. Private to "acto": t. Private to "acuso": su.

"acto" · 4 letters · shape VCCV  ·  "acuso" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • actoaccto · acot · actto · atco
  • acusoaccuso · acsuo · acuos · acusso · aucso

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "acto" and "acuso" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "acto" is a noun and "acuso" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "acto" or "acuso" show up more?
"acto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,077 in our Spanish list, against #39,030 for "acuso". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "acto" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "acuso" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #160,875 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "acto" and "acuso" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "acudí vs acuso". 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 #160,875 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