castigadovscastigandoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#11,372
“castigado” frequency rank
#37,480
“castigando” frequency rank
48852
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature castigado castigando
Definition Participio de castigar. Gerundio de castigar.

Where the eye mixes castigado and castigando

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 9 letters in sequence.

9 ch
castigado
10 ch
castigando

Visual trap between castigado and castigando

A purely visual mix-up. castigado ([kast̪iˈɣ̞að̞o]) and castigando ([kast̪iˈɣ̞ãn̪d̪o]) 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 48852, 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]. castigando is at rank #37,480, tagged as averb, pronounced [kast̪iˈɣ̞ãn̪d̪o].

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 48852, this pair ranks #112,154 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of castigado vs castigando

Shared letters: acdgiost. Private to "castigado": -. Private to "castigando": n.

"castigado" · 9 letters · shape CVCCVCVCV  ·  "castigando" · 10 letters · shape CVCCVCVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • castigadoacstigado · casitgado · casstigado · castgiado · castiagdo · castigaddo · castigaod · castigdao
  • castigandoacstigando · casitgando · casstigando · castgiando · castiagndo · castigadno · castiganddo · castiganndo

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "castigado" and "castigando" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([kast̪iˈɣ̞að̞o] versus [kast̪iˈɣ̞ãn̪d̪o]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "castigado" or "castigando" show up more?
"castigado" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #11,372 in our Spanish list, against #37,480 for "castigando". 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 "castigando" 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 "castigando" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #112,154 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "castigado" and "castigando" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "castigan vs castigando". 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 #112,154 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