cestavscostoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#16,530
“cesta” frequency rank
#1,763
“costo” frequency rank
18293
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cesta costo
Definition Recipiente tejido de mimbre, esparto o material similar. Precio pagado por un bien o servicio, o imputado a la producción de este.

Where the eye mixes cesta and costo

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

5 ch
cesta
5 ch
costo

Look-alike desk: cesta vs costo

A purely visual mix-up. cesta ([ˈsest̪a]) and costo ([ˈkost̪o]) 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 18293, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cesta is recorded at frequency rank #16,530, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈsest̪a]. costo is at rank #1,763, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkost̪o].

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 18293, this pair ranks #268,527 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cesta vs costo

Shared letters: cst. Private to "cesta": ae. Private to "costo": o.

"cesta" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "costo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cestaccesta · cesat · cessta · cestta · cetsa · cseta · ecsta · sesta
  • costoccosto · cosot · cossto · costto · cotso · csoto · ocsto

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cesta" for "costo" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈsest̪a] versus [ˈkost̪o]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "cesta" vs "costo" - which ranks higher?
"costo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,763 in our Spanish list, against #16,530 for "cesta". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cesta" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "costo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #268,527 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cesta" and "costo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ceba vs cesta". 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 #268,527 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