castovscortoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#44,616
“casto” frequency rank
#1,567
“corto” frequency rank
46183
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature casto corto
Definition Persona que se abstiene de todo goce sexual o lo vive de acuerdo a ciertas directrices dictadas por su religión o su moral. Pequeño, especialmente en cuanto a la longitud, duración o extensión, pero también en cuanto a otra dimensión en comparación con otros de su clase o género.

Where the eye mixes casto and corto

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. casto and corto follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
casto
5 ch
corto

Why the eye confuses casto with corto

A purely visual mix-up. casto ([ˈkast̪o]) and corto ([ˈkoɾt̪o]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 46183, 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]. corto is at rank #1,567, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈkoɾt̪o].

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 46183, this pair ranks #127,201 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of casto vs corto

Shared letters: cot. Private to "casto": as. Private to "corto": r.

"casto" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "corto" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • casto ← acsto · casot · cassto · castto · catso · ccasto · csato
  • corto ← ccorto · corot · corrto · cortto · cotro · croto · ocrto

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "casto" and "corto" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkast̪o] versus [ˈkoɾt̪o]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "casto" or "corto"?
"corto" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,567 in our Spanish list, against #44,616 for "casto". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "casto" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "corto" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #127,201 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "casto" and "corto" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "casto vs Chasco". 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 #127,201 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