caiganvscaimánTell them apart

Quick tell: caigan is a verb, caimán is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“caigan” is a verb and “caimán” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#14,780
“caigan” frequency rank
#22,966
“caimán” frequency rank
37746
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature caigan caimán
Definition Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de subjuntivo de caer o de caerse. (Caiman) Género de crocodilios de la familia de los aligatóridos, conocidos vulgarmente como yacarés o caimanes. Se distribuyen en las regiones subtropicales y tropicales de América, desde México hasta el sur de Sudamérica.

Where the eye mixes caigan and caimán

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
caigan
6 ch
caimán

Why the eye confuses caigan with caimán

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: caigan is [ˈkajɣ̞ãn] while caimán is [kajˈmãn]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 37746, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

caigan is recorded at frequency rank #14,780, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈkajɣ̞ãn]. caimán is at rank #22,966, tagged as anoun, pronounced [kajˈmãn].

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 37746, this pair ranks #173,696 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of caigan vs caimán

Shared letters: acin. Private to "caigan": g. Private to "caimán": .

"caigan" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "caimán" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • caiganacigan · cagian · caiagn · caigann · caiggan · caigna · ccaigan · ciagan

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "caigan" and "caimán" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "caigan" is a verb and "caimán" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "caigan" or "caimán" show up more?
"caigan" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #14,780 in our Spanish list, against #22,966 for "caimán". 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 "caigan" and "caimán" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "caigan" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "caimán" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #173,696 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "caigan" and "caimán" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "caimán vs calmen". 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 #173,696 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