cansadovscantadoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#3,987
“cansado” frequency rank
#15,033
“cantado” frequency rank
19020
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cansado cantado
Definition Débil físicamente, por exceso de ejercicio o por enfermedad. Dicho del sufragio: que no es secreto.

Where the eye mixes cansado and cantado

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. cansado and cantado follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
cansado
7 ch
cantado

Why the eye confuses cansado with cantado

A purely visual mix-up. cansado ([kãnˈsað̞o]) and cantado ([kãn̪ˈt̪að̞o]) 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 - s in “cansado” becomes t in “cantado”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 19020, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cansado is recorded at frequency rank #3,987, classified as anadj, pronounced [kãnˈsað̞o]. cantado is at rank #15,033, tagged as anadj, pronounced [kãn̪ˈt̪að̞o].

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 19020, this pair ranks #265,513 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cansado vs cantado

Shared letters: acdno. Private to "cansado": s. Private to "cantado": t.

"cansado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "cantado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cansadoacnsado · canasdo · cannsado · cansaddo · cansaod · cansdao · canssado · casnado
  • cantadoacntado · canatdo · canntado · cantaddo · cantaod · cantdao · canttado · catnado

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "cansado" and "cantado" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([kãnˈsað̞o] versus [kãn̪ˈt̪að̞o]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cansado" vs "cantado" - which ranks higher?
"cansado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,987 in our Spanish list, against #15,033 for "cantado". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cansado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cantado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #265,513 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cansado" and "cantado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cántabro vs cantado". 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 #265,513 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