castigadovscastiganConfusable pair

Which to use

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

#11,372
“castigado” frequency rank
#30,800
“castigan” frequency rank
42172
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature castigado castigan
Definition Participio de castigar. Tercera persona del plural (ellos, ellas; ustedes, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de castigar o de castigarse.

Where the eye mixes castigado and castigan

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

9 ch
castigado
8 ch
castigan

Look-alike desk: castigado vs castigan

A purely visual mix-up. castigado ([kast̪iˈɣ̞að̞o]) and castigan ([kasˈt̪iɣ̞ãn]) 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 42172, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

castigado is recorded at frequency rank #11,372, classified as averb, pronounced [kast̪iˈɣ̞að̞o]. castigan is at rank #30,800, tagged as averb, pronounced [kasˈt̪iɣ̞ãn].

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 42172, this pair ranks #149,717 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of castigado vs castigan

Shared letters: acgist. Private to "castigado": do. Private to "castigan": n.

"castigado" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCV  ·  "castigan" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • castigadoacstigado · casitgado · casstigado · castgiado · castiagdo · castigaddo · castigaod · castigdao
  • castiganacstigan · casitgan · casstigan · castgian · castiagn · castigann · castiggan · castigna

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "castigado" and "castigan" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([kast̪iˈɣ̞að̞o] versus [kasˈt̪iɣ̞ãn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "castigado" vs "castigan" - which ranks higher?
"castigado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,372 in our Spanish list, against #30,800 for "castigan". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "castigado" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "castigan" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #149,717 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "castigado" and "castigan" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "castigan vs castigará". 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 #149,717 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