castovscesóWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: casto is a adjective, cesó is a verb, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“casto” is an adjective and “cesó” is a verb - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#44,616
“casto” frequency rank
#22,977
“cesó” frequency rank
67593
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature casto cesó
Definition Persona que se abstiene de todo goce sexual o lo vive de acuerdo a ciertas directrices dictadas por su religión o su moral. Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del pretérito perfecto simple de indicativo de cesar.

Where the spellings diverge

Shared letters are muted; the letters that actually set casto and cesó apart are highlighted. They share 2 letters in sequence, which is exactly why the eye skips the difference.

5 ch
casto
4 ch
cesó

Spelling & Dictionary Insight

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: casto is [ˈkast̪o] while cesó is [seˈso]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs verb), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 67593, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

casto is recorded at frequency rank #44,616, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈkast̪o]. cesó is at rank #22,977, tagged as averb, pronounced [seˈso].

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 67593, this pair ranks #36,713 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of casto vs cesó

Shared letters: cs. Private to "casto": aot. Private to "cesó": .

"casto" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "cesó" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • castoacsto · casot · cassto · castto · catso · ccasto · csato

Frequency comparison

casto#44,616
cesó#22,977

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "casto" and "cesó" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "casto" is an adjective and "cesó" a verb, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "casto" or "cesó"?
"cesó" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #22,977 in our Spanish list, against #44,616 for "casto". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Remembering casto vs cesó

The fastest way to pick the right one every time.

  • Check the role first: if you need an adjective, it's “casto”; for a verb, it's “cesó”.
  • See each word in full, definition, IPA, etymology and its other confusables. Full “casto” entry
  • Browse more pairs most likely to be confused. Most confusable

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list