captadovscargadoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#23,335
“captado” frequency rank
#7,265
“cargado” frequency rank
30600
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature captado cargado
Definition Participio de captar. Participio de cargar.

Where the eye mixes captado and cargado

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence.

7 ch
captado
7 ch
cargado

Why the eye confuses captado with cargado

A purely visual mix-up. captado ([kapˈt̪að̞o]) and cargado ([kaɾˈɣ̞að̞o]) 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 30600, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

captado is recorded at frequency rank #23,335, classified as averb, pronounced [kapˈt̪að̞o]. cargado is at rank #7,265, tagged as averb, pronounced [kaɾˈɣ̞að̞o].

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 30600, this pair ranks #211,198 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of captado vs cargado

Shared letters: acdo. Private to "captado": pt. Private to "cargado": gr.

"captado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "cargado" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • captadoacptado · capatdo · capptado · captaddo · captaod · captdao · capttado · catpado
  • cargadoacrgado · cagrado · caragdo · cargaddo · cargaod · cargdao · carggado · carrgado

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "captado" for "cargado" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([kapˈt̪að̞o] versus [kaɾˈɣ̞að̞o]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "captado" or "cargado"?
"cargado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,265 in our Spanish list, against #23,335 for "captado". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "captado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cargado" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #211,198 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "captado" and "cargado" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "captado vs castrado". 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 #211,198 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