cinturavscosturaWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#7,681
“cintura” frequency rank
#19,679
“costura” frequency rank
27360
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cintura costura
Definition Parte del cuerpo humano inmediatamente por debajo de la última costilla flotante. Acción o efecto de coser

Where the eye mixes cintura and costura

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 5 letters in sequence. cintura and costura follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

7 ch
cintura
7 ch
costura

Visual trap between cintura and costura

A purely visual mix-up. cintura ([sĩn̪ˈt̪uɾa]) and costura ([kosˈt̪uɾa]) 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 27360, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cintura is recorded at frequency rank #7,681, classified as anoun, pronounced [sĩn̪ˈt̪uɾa]. costura is at rank #19,679, tagged as anoun, pronounced [kosˈt̪uɾa].

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 27360, this pair ranks #227,201 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cintura vs costura

Shared letters: acrtu. Private to "cintura": in. Private to "costura": os.

"cintura" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "costura" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cintura ← ccintura · cinntura · cintrua · cinttura · cintuar · cinturra · cinutra · citnura
  • costura ← ccostura · cosstura · costrua · costtura · costuar · costurra · cosutra · cotsura

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cintura" and "costura" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([sĩn̪ˈt̪uɾa] versus [kosˈt̪uɾa]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cintura" or "costura"?
"cintura" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #7,681 in our Spanish list, against #19,679 for "costura". 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 "cintura" and "costura" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cintura" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "costura" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #227,201 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cintura" and "costura" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "constará vs costura". 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 #227,201 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