ciudadvscrudasConfusable pair

Quick tell: ciudad is a noun, crudas is an adjective, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#161
“ciudad” frequency rank
#34,036
“crudas” frequency rank
34197
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ciudad crudas
Definition Asentamiento de gran tamaño y actividad primariamente industrial o de servicio, antes que agrícola. Forma del femenino plural de crudo.

Where the eye mixes ciudad and crudas

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

6 ch
ciudad
6 ch
crudas

Why the eye confuses ciudad with crudas

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ciudad is [sjuˈð̞að̞] while crudas is [ˈkɾuð̞as]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (noun vs adjective), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 34197, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ciudad is recorded at frequency rank #161, classified as anoun, pronounced [sjuˈð̞að̞]. crudas is at rank #34,036, tagged as anadj, pronounced [ˈkɾuð̞as].

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 34197, this pair ranks #192,727 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of ciudad vs crudas

Shared letters: acdu. Private to "ciudad": i. Private to "crudas": rs.

"ciudad" · 6 letters · shape CVVCVC  ·  "crudas" · 6 letters · shape CCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • ciudad ← cciudad · ciduad · ciuadd · ciudadd · ciudda · ciuddad · icudad · siudad
  • crudas ← ccrudas · crduas · crrudas · cruads · crudass · cruddas · crudsa · curdas

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ciudad" for "crudas" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ciudad" is a noun and "crudas" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "ciudad" vs "crudas" - which ranks higher?
"ciudad" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #161 in our Spanish list, against #34,036 for "crudas". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

What to do next

Eye-level mix-up between "ciudad" and "crudas" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "ciudad" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "crudas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #192,727 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ciudad" and "crudas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "credos vs crudas". 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 #192,727 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