cínicovsclinicWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#16,549
“cínico” frequency rank
#42,339
“clinic” frequency rank
58888
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cínico clinic
Definition Que pertenece o concierne a la escuela de la filosofía griega del mismo nombre, que abogaba por una vida sencilla y el abandono de las sofisticaciones de la sociedad. Clínica.

Where the eye mixes cínico and clinic

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence. cínico (CVCVCV) and clinic (CCVCVC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

6 ch
cínico
6 ch
clinic

Look-alike desk: cínico vs clinic

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cínico is [ˈsiniko] while clinic is /ˈklɪn.ɪk/. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 5 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 58888, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cínico is recorded at frequency rank #16,549, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈsiniko]. clinic is at rank #42,339, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈklɪn.ɪk/.

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 58888, this pair ranks #64,751 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cínico vs clinic

Shared letters: cin. Private to "cínico": . Private to "clinic": l.

"cínico" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCV  ·  "clinic" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cliniccclinic · cilnic · cliinc · clinci · clinicc · clinnic · cllinic · clniic

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cínico" and "clinic" be used interchangeably?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cínico" is an adjective and "clinic" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "cínico" or "clinic" show up more?
"cínico" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #16,549 in our Spanish list, against #42,339 for "clinic". 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 "cínico" and "clinic" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cínico" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "clinic" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #64,751 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cínico" and "clinic" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "clinic vs clinical". 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 #64,751 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