cachovscalcoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#15,294
“cacho” frequency rank
#46,977
“calco” frequency rank
62271
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cacho calco
Definition Pedazo o porción de alguna cosa, en especial de límites más bien difusos o amorfa. Acción y efecto de calcar

Where the eye mixes cacho and calco

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

5 ch
cacho
5 ch
calco

Look-alike desk: cacho vs calco

A purely visual mix-up. cacho ([ˈkat͡ʃo]) and calco ([ˈkalko]) 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 62271, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cacho is recorded at frequency rank #15,294, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkat͡ʃo]. calco is at rank #46,977, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkalko].

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 62271, this pair ranks #52,615 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cacho vs calco

Shared letters: aco. Private to "cacho": h. Private to "calco": l.

"cacho" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "calco" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cacho ← accho · caccho · cachho · cacoh · cahco · ccacho · ccaho
  • calco ← aclco · caclo · calcco · callco · caloc · ccalco · claco

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cacho" and "calco" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkat͡ʃo] versus [ˈkalko]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cacho" vs "calco" - which ranks higher?
"cacho" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #15,294 in our Spanish list, against #46,977 for "calco". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cacho" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "calco" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #52,615 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cacho" and "calco" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "calco vs Chasco". 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 #52,615 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