bastónvsbastosTell them apart

Which to use

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

#13,191
“bastón” frequency rank
#32,518
“bastos” frequency rank
45709
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature bastón bastos
Definition Vara o palo, generalmente de madera con empuñadura y contera, usada para apoyarse al caminar. En la baraja española, uno de los cuatro palos, representado por varas o bastones nudosos.

Where the eye mixes bastón and bastos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. bastón and bastos follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
bastón
6 ch
bastos

Look-alike desk: bastón vs bastos

A purely visual mix-up. bastón ([basˈt̪õn]) and bastos ([ˈbast̪os]) 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 45709, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

bastón is recorded at frequency rank #13,191, classified as anoun, pronounced [basˈt̪õn]. bastos is at rank #32,518, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈbast̪os].

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 45709, this pair ranks #129,877 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of bastón vs bastos

Shared letters: abst. Private to "bastón": nó. Private to "bastos": o.

"bastón" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "bastos" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • bastos ← abstos · basots · basstos · bastoss · bastso · basttos · batsos · bbastos

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "bastón" for "bastos" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([basˈt̪õn] versus [ˈbast̪os]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "bastón" or "bastos"?
"bastón" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #13,191 in our Spanish list, against #32,518 for "bastos". 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 "bastón" and "bastos" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "bastón" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "bastos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #129,877 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "bastón" and "bastos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "bardos vs bastos". 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 #129,877 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