cabezónvscayeronWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: cabezón is a adjective, cayeron is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cabezón” is an adjective and “cayeron” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#26,344
“cabezón” frequency rank
#7,116
“cayeron” frequency rank
33460
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cabezón cayeron
Definition Que tiene una cabeza muy grande. Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de caer o de caerse.

Where the eye mixes cabezón and cayeron

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cabezón (CVCVCVC) and cayeron (CVVVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

7 ch
cabezón
7 ch
cayeron

Why the eye confuses cabezón with cayeron

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cabezón is [kaβ̞eˈsõn] while cayeron is [kaˈʝeɾõn]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 3 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 33460, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cabezón is recorded at frequency rank #26,344, classified as anadj, pronounced [kaβ̞eˈsõn]. cayeron is at rank #7,116, tagged as averb, pronounced [kaˈʝeɾõn].

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 33460, this pair ranks #196,690 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cabezón vs cayeron

Shared letters: acen. Private to "cabezón": bzó. Private to "cayeron": ory.

"cabezón" · 7 letters · shape CVCVCVC  ·  "cayeron" · 7 letters · shape CVVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cayeronacyeron · caeyron · cayeorn · cayerno · cayeronn · cayerron · cayreon · cayyeron

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cabezón" for "cayeron" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cabezón" is an adjective and "cayeron" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "cabezón" or "cayeron" show up more?
"cayeron" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,116 in our Spanish list, against #26,344 for "cabezón". 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 "cabezón" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cayeron" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #196,690 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cabezón" and "cayeron" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cabezón vs comezón". 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 #196,690 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