cerdovscircoTell them apart

Which to use

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

#5,930
“cerdo” frequency rank
#5,383
“circo” frequency rank
11313
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cerdo circo
Definition (Sus scrofa domesticus) Animal mamífero, artiodáctilo, de cuerpo robusto y piel gruesa, domesticado desde la Antigüedad para aprovechar su carne y su cuero. Es una variedad de la misma especie que en su forma salvaje se conoce como jabalí. Gran carpa, generalmente por la forma nómada del negocio, con gradas para el público y un espacio al centro donde se realizan espectáculos gimnásticos, ecuestres, de payasos, entre otros.

Where the eye mixes cerdo and circo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

5 ch
cerdo
5 ch
circo

Visual trap between cerdo and circo

A purely visual mix-up. cerdo ([ˈseɾð̞o]) and circo ([ˈsiɾko]) 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 11313, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cerdo is recorded at frequency rank #5,930, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈseɾð̞o]. circo is at rank #5,383, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈsiɾko].

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 11313, this pair ranks #295,549 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cerdo vs circo

Shared letters: cor. Private to "cerdo": de. Private to "circo": i.

"cerdo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "circo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cerdoccerdo · cerddo · cerod · cerrdo · ecrdo · serdo
  • circoccirco · cicro · circco · ciroc · cirrco · crico · icrco · sirco

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cerdo" for "circo" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈseɾð̞o] versus [ˈsiɾko]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cerdo" or "circo"?
"circo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #5,383 in our Spanish list, against #5,930 for "cerdo". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cerdo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "circo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #295,549 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cerdo" and "circo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cerdo vs curo". 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 #295,549 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