cocervscocosWhich spelling fits?

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

Which to use

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

#31,266
“cocer” frequency rank
#24,782
“cocos” frequency rank
56048
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cocer cocos
Definition Cocinar sumergiendo los alimentos en agua muy caliente o hirviendo. Forma del plural de coco.

Where the eye mixes cocer and cocos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. cocer and cocos follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
cocer
5 ch
cocos

Why the eye confuses cocer with cocos

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cocer is [koˈseɾ] while cocos is [ˈkokos]. 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 (verb vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 56048, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cocer is recorded at frequency rank #31,266, classified as averb, pronounced [koˈseɾ]. cocos is at rank #24,782, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkokos].

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 56048, this pair ranks #76,245 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of cocer vs cocos

Shared letters: co. Private to "cocer": er. Private to "cocos": s.

"cocer" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC  ·  "cocos" · 5 letters · shape CVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cocerccocer · ccoer · coccer · cocerr · cocre · coecr · occer
  • cocosccocos · ccoos · coccos · cocoss · cocso · coocs · occos

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cocer" for "cocos" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cocer" is a verb and "cocos" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Which is more common, "cocer" or "cocos"?
"cocos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #24,782 in our Spanish list, against #31,266 for "cocer". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "cocer" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "cocos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #76,245 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cocer" and "cocos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cocer vs codex". 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 #76,245 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