carbóvscargoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#44,027
“carbó” frequency rank
#603
“cargo” frequency rank
44630
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature carbó cargo
Definition Carbón. Puesto de responsabilidad en un sistema organizativo.

Where the eye mixes carbó and cargo

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

5 ch
carbó
5 ch
cargo

Visual trap between carbó and cargo

A purely visual mix-up. carbó ([kərˈbo]) and cargo ([ˈkaɾɣ̞o]) 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 44630, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

carbó is recorded at frequency rank #44,027, classified as anoun, pronounced [kərˈbo]. cargo is at rank #603, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkaɾɣ̞o].

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 44630, this pair ranks #135,991 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of carbó vs cargo

Shared letters: acr. Private to "carbó": bó. Private to "cargo": go.

"carbó" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "cargo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cargo ← acrgo · cagro · carggo · carog · carrgo · ccargo · crago

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "carbó" and "cargo" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([kərˈbo] versus [ˈkaɾɣ̞o]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "carbó" or "cargo" show up more?
"cargo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #603 in our Spanish list, against #44,027 for "carbó". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "carbó" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cargo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #135,991 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "carbó" and "cargo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "carbó vs Charo". 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 #135,991 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