cacovscasoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#45,790
“caco” frequency rank
#157
“caso” frequency rank
45947
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caco caso
Definition Persona que tiene por costumbre u oficio el apropiarse de cosas que no le pertenecen. Cada una de varias instancias consideradas como pertenecientes a un mismo tipo de situaciones o cosas (como los casos de una enfermedad, etc.).

Where the eye mixes caco and caso

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

4 ch
caco
4 ch
caso

Why the eye confuses caco with caso

A purely visual mix-up. caco ([ˈkako]) and caso ([ˈkaso]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - c in “caco” becomes s in “caso”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 45947, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

caco is recorded at frequency rank #45,790, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkako]. caso is at rank #157, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkaso].

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 45947, this pair ranks #128,544 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of caco vs caso

Shared letters: aco. Private to "caco": -. Private to "caso": s.

"caco" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "caso" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cacoacco · cacco · caoc · ccaco · ccao
  • casoacso · casso · ccaso · csao

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "caco" and "caso" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkako] versus [ˈkaso]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "caco" vs "caso" - which ranks higher?
"caso" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #157 in our Spanish list, against #45,790 for "caco". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "caco" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "caso" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #128,544 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caco" and "caso" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caco vs cuc". 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 #128,544 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