coitovscostoWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#30,814
“coito” frequency rank
#1,763
“costo” frequency rank
32577
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature coito costo
Definition Acto sexual, biológicamente funcional a la reproducción de los animales vertebrados, en que entran en contacto los genitales de los participantes. Precio pagado por un bien o servicio, o imputado a la producción de este.

Where the eye mixes coito and costo

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

5 ch
coito
5 ch
costo

Visual trap between coito and costo

A purely visual mix-up. coito ([ˈkojt̪o]) and costo ([ˈkost̪o]) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by a single letter - i in “coito” becomes s in “costo”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 32577, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

coito is recorded at frequency rank #30,814, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkojt̪o]. costo is at rank #1,763, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkost̪o].

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 32577, this pair ranks #201,265 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of coito vs costo

Shared letters: cot. Private to "coito": i. Private to "costo": s.

"coito" · 5 letters · shape CVVCV  ·  "costo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • coitoccoito · cioto · coiot · coitto · cotio
  • costoccosto · cosot · cossto · costto · cotso · csoto · ocsto

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "coito" for "costo" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkojt̪o] versus [ˈkost̪o]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "coito" or "costo"?
"costo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,763 in our Spanish list, against #30,814 for "coito". 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 "coito" and "costo" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "coito" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "costo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #201,265 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "coito" and "costo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "coin vs coito". 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 #201,265 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