cardovscargoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#42,867
“cardo” frequency rank
#603
“cargo” frequency rank
43470
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cardo cargo
Definition Nombre común dado a múltiples especies de plantas en las familias de las asteráceas, las apiáceas y las dipsacáceas, caracterizadas por un tallo herbáceo vertical de gran porte, tachonado de espinas, e inflorescencias terminales en forma de densos capítulos. Muchas especies son comestibles. Puesto de responsabilidad en un sistema organizativo.

Where the eye mixes cardo and cargo

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

5 ch
cardo
5 ch
cargo

Visual trap between cardo and cargo

A purely visual mix-up. cardo ([ˈkaɾð̞o]) 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 differ by a single letter - d in “cardo” becomes g in “cargo”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 43470, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cardo is recorded at frequency rank #42,867, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkaɾð̞o]. 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 43470, this pair ranks #142,462 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cardo vs cargo

Shared letters: acor. Private to "cardo": d. Private to "cargo": g.

"cardo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "cargo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cardoacrdo · cadro · carddo · carod · carrdo · ccardo · crado
  • cargoacrgo · cagro · carggo · carog · carrgo · ccargo · crago

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cardo" for "cargo" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkaɾð̞o] versus [ˈkaɾɣ̞o]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cardo" or "cargo"?
"cargo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #603 in our Spanish list, against #42,867 for "cardo". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "cardo" and "cargo" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cardo" 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 #142,462 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cardo" and "cargo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cardo 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 #142,462 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