cacovscazoConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#45,790
“caco” frequency rank
#35,406
“cazo” frequency rank
81196
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caco cazo
Definition Persona que tiene por costumbre u oficio el apropiarse de cosas que no le pertenecen. Recipiente profundo y poco ancho, con mango largo y a veces pico, usado para calentar o cocer.

Where the eye mixes caco and cazo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. caco and cazo follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

4 ch
caco
4 ch
cazo

Why the eye confuses caco with cazo

A purely visual mix-up. caco ([ˈkako]) and cazo ([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 z in “cazo”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 81196, 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]. cazo is at rank #35,406, 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 81196, this pair ranks #10,692 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of caco vs cazo

Shared letters: aco. Private to "caco": -. Private to "cazo": z.

"caco" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cazo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caco ← acco · cacco · caoc · ccaco · ccao
  • cazo ← aczo · caoz · cazzo · ccazo · czao

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "caco" for "cazo" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkako] versus [ˈkaso]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "caco" or "cazo"?
"cazo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #35,406 in our Spanish list, against #45,790 for "caco". 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 "caco" and "cazo" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "caco" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cazo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #10,692 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caco" and "cazo" 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 #10,692 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