cartónvscuartosTell them apart

Which to use

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

#8,622
“cartón” frequency rank
#4,695
“cuartos” frequency rank
13317
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cartón cuartos
Definition Material barato compuesto de varias hojas de papel superpuestas y prensadas, utilizado principalemente para embalaje Miembros del cuerpo del animal robusto y fornido; y entre los pintores y escultores y los conocedores de caballos, miembros bien proporcionados.

Where the eye mixes cartón and cuartos

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

6 ch
cartón
7 ch
cuartos

Look-alike desk: cartón vs cuartos

A purely visual mix-up. cartón ([kaɾˈt̪õn]) and cuartos ([ˈkwaɾt̪os]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 13317, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cartón is recorded at frequency rank #8,622, classified as anoun, pronounced [kaɾˈt̪õn]. cuartos is at rank #4,695, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkwaɾt̪os].

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 13317, this pair ranks #288,310 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cartón vs cuartos

Shared letters: acrt. Private to "cartón": . Private to "cuartos": osu.

"cartón" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "cuartos" · 7 letters · shape CVVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cuartoscaurtos · ccuartos · cuarots · cuarrtos · cuartoss · cuartso · cuarttos · curatos

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cartón" for "cuartos" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([kaɾˈt̪õn] versus [ˈkwaɾt̪os]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "cartón" or "cuartos" show up more?
"cuartos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,695 in our Spanish list, against #8,622 for "cartón". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cartón" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cuartos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #288,310 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cartón" and "cuartos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cart vs cartón". 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 #288,310 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