citevscorteWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#34,003
“cite” frequency rank
#803
“corte” frequency rank
34806
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cite corte
Definition Primera persona del singular (yo) del presente de subjuntivo de citar. Acción de cortar o de cortarse.

Where the eye mixes cite and corte

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

4 ch
cite
5 ch
corte

Visual trap between cite and corte

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cite is [ˈsit̪e] while corte is [ˈkoɾt̪e]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they differ by 1 letter(s) in length, and the parts of speech differ too (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34806, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cite is recorded at frequency rank #34,003, classified as averb, pronounced [ˈsit̪e]. corte is at rank #803, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkoɾt̪e].

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 34806, this pair ranks #189,483 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cite vs corte

Shared letters: cet. Private to "cite": i. Private to "corte": or.

"cite" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "corte" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • citeccite · ciet · citte · ctie · icte
  • corteccorte · coret · corrte · cortte · cotre · crote · ocrte

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cite" for "corte" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cite" is a verb and "corte" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "cite" or "corte"?
"corte" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #803 in our Spanish list, against #34,003 for "cite". 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 "cite" and "corte" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cite" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "corte" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #189,483 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cite" and "corte" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "catre vs cite". 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 #189,483 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