buscavsbustoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#782
“busca” frequency rank
#14,777
“busto” frequency rank
15559
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature busca busto
Definition Acción o efecto de buscar. Una escultura o pintura de la parte superior del cuerpo.

Where the eye mixes busca and busto

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

5 ch
busca
5 ch
busto

Look-alike desk: busca vs busto

A purely visual mix-up. busca ([ˈbuska]) and busto ([ˈbust̪o]) 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 15559, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

busca is recorded at frequency rank #782, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈbuska]. busto is at rank #14,777, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈbust̪o].

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 15559, this pair ranks #279,667 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of busca vs busto

Shared letters: bsu. Private to "busca": ac. Private to "busto": ot.

"busca" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "busto" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • buscabbusca · bsuca · bucsa · busac · buscca · bussca · ubsca · vusca
  • bustobbusto · bsuto · busot · bussto · bustto · butso · ubsto · vusto

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "busca" for "busto" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈbuska] versus [ˈbust̪o]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "busca" vs "busto" - which ranks higher?
"busca" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #782 in our Spanish list, against #14,777 for "busto". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "busca" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "busto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #279,667 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "busca" and "busto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "busto vs butt". 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 #279,667 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