cesavscosaTell them apart

Quick tell: cesa is a verb, cosa is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“cesa” is a verb and “cosa” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#27,145
“cesa” frequency rank
#234
“cosa” frequency rank
27379
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cesa cosa
Definition Tercera persona del singular (él, ella, ello; usted, 2.ª persona) del presente de indicativo de cesar. Nombre con el que se puede designar un objeto real o imaginario, una abstracción o un concepto sin tener que definirlo o nombrarlo.

Where the eye mixes cesa and cosa

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

4 ch
cesa
4 ch
cosa

Why the eye confuses cesa with cosa

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cesa is [ˈsesa] while cosa is [ˈkosa]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by a single letter - e in “cesa” becomes o in “cosa”, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27379, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cesa is recorded at frequency rank #27,145, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈsesa]. cosa is at rank #234, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkosa].

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 27379, this pair ranks #227,089 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cesa vs cosa

Shared letters: acs. Private to "cesa": e. Private to "cosa": o.

"cesa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "cosa" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cesaccesa · cessa · csea · ecsa
  • cosaccosa · coas · csoa · ocsa

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cesa" for "cosa" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cesa" is a verb and "cosa" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "cesa" or "cosa" show up more?
"cosa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #234 in our Spanish list, against #27,145 for "cesa". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "cesa" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cosa" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #227,089 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cesa" and "cosa" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ceba vs cesa". 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 #227,089 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