cargovscurvoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: cargo is a noun, curvo is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cargo” is a noun and “curvo” is an adjective - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#603
“cargo” frequency rank
#43,495
“curvo” frequency rank
44098
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cargo curvo
Definition Puesto de responsabilidad en un sistema organizativo. Que se dobla o se aleja gradualmente de la línea o dirección recta sin formar ángulos.

Where the eye mixes cargo and curvo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
cargo
5 ch
curvo

Visual trap between cargo and curvo

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cargo is [ˈkaɾɣ̞o] while curvo is [ˈkuɾβ̞o]. 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 (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 44098, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cargo is recorded at frequency rank #603, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkaɾɣ̞o]. curvo is at rank #43,495, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈkuɾβ̞o].

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 44098, this pair ranks #138,911 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cargo vs curvo

Shared letters: cor. Private to "cargo": ag. Private to "curvo": uv.

"cargo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "curvo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cargoacrgo · cagro · carggo · carog · carrgo · ccargo · crago
  • curvoccurvo · cruvo · curbo · curov · currvo · curvvo · cuvro · ucrvo

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cargo" for "curvo" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cargo" is a noun and "curvo" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "cargo" or "curvo" show up more?
"cargo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #603 in our Spanish list, against #43,495 for "curvo". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cargo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "curvo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #138,911 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cargo" and "curvo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "curt vs curvo". 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 #138,911 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