bastadovsbuscadoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#43,998
“bastado” frequency rank
#6,269
“buscado” frequency rank
50267
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bastado buscado
Definition Participio de bastar. Participio de buscar.

Where the eye mixes bastado and buscado

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. bastado and buscado follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
bastado
7 ch
buscado

Visual trap between bastado and buscado

A purely visual mix-up. bastado ([basˈt̪að̞o]) and buscado ([busˈkað̞o]) 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 50267, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bastado is recorded at frequency rank #43,998, classified as averb, pronounced [basˈt̪að̞o]. buscado is at rank #6,269, tagged as averb, pronounced [busˈkað̞o].

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 50267, this pair ranks #104,143 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bastado vs buscado

Shared letters: abdos. Private to "bastado": t. Private to "buscado": cu.

"bastado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "buscado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bastado ← abstado · basatdo · basstado · bastaddo · bastaod · bastdao · basttado · batsado
  • buscado ← bbuscado · bsucado · bucsado · busacdo · buscaddo · buscaod · busccado · buscdao

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "bastado" for "buscado" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([basˈt̪að̞o] versus [busˈkað̞o]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "bastado" vs "buscado" - which ranks higher?
"buscado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #6,269 in our Spanish list, against #43,998 for "bastado". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "bastado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "buscado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #104,143 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bastado" and "buscado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bastado vs botado". 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 #104,143 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