celtasvscercasWhat's the difference?

Quick tell: celtas is a adjective, cercas is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“celtas” is an adjective and “cercas” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#33,012
“celtas” frequency rank
#28,280
“cercas” frequency rank
61292
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature celtas cercas
Definition Forma del plural de celta. Forma del plural de cerca.

Where the eye mixes celtas and cercas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. celtas and cercas follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

6 ch
celtas
6 ch
cercas

Visual trap between celtas and cercas

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: celtas is [ˈsel̪t̪as] while cercas is [ˈseɾkas]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 61292, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

celtas is recorded at frequency rank #33,012, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈsel̪t̪as]. cercas is at rank #28,280, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈseɾkas].

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 61292, this pair ranks #55,971 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of celtas vs cercas

Shared letters: aces. Private to "celtas": lt. Private to "cercas": r.

"celtas" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "cercas" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • celtas ← cceltas · celats · celltas · celtass · celtsa · celttas · cetlas · cletas
  • cercas ← ccercas · cecras · ceracs · cercass · cerccas · cercsa · cerrcas · crecas

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "celtas" for "cercas" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "celtas" is an adjective and "cercas" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "celtas" vs "cercas" - which ranks higher?
"cercas" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #28,280 in our Spanish list, against #33,012 for "celtas". 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 "celtas" and "cercas" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "celtas" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cercas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #55,971 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "celtas" and "cercas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "celtas vs cultas". 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 #55,971 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