chicosvscríosWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#959
“chicos” frequency rank
#35,441
“críos” frequency rank
36400
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature chicos críos
Definition Forma del plural de chico. Forma del plural de crío.

Where the eye mixes chicos and críos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. chicos runs 6 letters (CCVCVC) against críos's 5 (CCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

6 ch
chicos
5 ch
críos

Look-alike desk: chicos vs críos

A purely visual mix-up. chicos ([ˈt͡ʃikos]) and críos ([ˈkɾios]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 36400, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

chicos is recorded at frequency rank #959, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈt͡ʃikos]. críos is at rank #35,441, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkɾios].

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 36400, this pair ranks #180,810 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of chicos vs críos

Shared letters: cos. Private to "chicos": hi. Private to "críos": .

"chicos" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC  ·  "críos" · 5 letters · shape CCVVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • chicoscchicos · chcios · chhicos · chiccos · chicoss · chicso · chiocs · cihcos

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "chicos" for "críos" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈt͡ʃikos] versus [ˈkɾios]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "chicos" or "críos"?
"chicos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #959 in our Spanish list, against #35,441 for "críos". 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 "chicos" and "críos" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "chicos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "críos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #180,810 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "chicos" and "críos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "críos vs cronos". 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 #180,810 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