casillasvscostillasWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#12,541
“casillas” frequency rank
#13,427
“costillas” frequency rank
25968
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature casillas costillas
Definition Forma del plural de casilla. Forma del plural de costilla.

Where the eye mixes casillas and costillas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 7 letters in sequence. casillas runs 8 letters (CVCVCCVC) against costillas's 9 (CVCCVCCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

8 ch
casillas
9 ch
costillas

Look-alike desk: casillas vs costillas

A purely visual mix-up. casillas ([kaˈsiʝas]) and costillas ([kosˈt̪iʝas]) 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 25968, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

casillas is recorded at frequency rank #12,541, classified as anoun, pronounced [kaˈsiʝas]. costillas is at rank #13,427, tagged as anoun, pronounced [kosˈt̪iʝas].

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 25968, this pair ranks #233,961 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of casillas vs costillas

Shared letters: acils. Private to "casillas": -. Private to "costillas": ot.

"casillas" · 8 letters · shape CVCVCCVC  ·  "costillas" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • casillas ← acsillas · cacillas · caisllas · casilals · casilas · casillass · casillsa · caslilas
  • costillas ← ccostillas · cositllas · cosstillas · costilals · costilas · costillass · costillsa · costlilas

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "casillas" and "costillas" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([kaˈsiʝas] versus [kosˈt̪iʝas]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "casillas" vs "costillas" - which ranks higher?
"casillas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #12,541 in our Spanish list, against #13,427 for "costillas". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "casillas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "costillas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #233,961 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "casillas" and "costillas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "canillas vs casillas". 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 #233,961 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