construcciónvscontracciónWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#802
“construcción” frequency rank
#17,088
“contracción” frequency rank
17890
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature construcción contracción
Definition Acción y efecto de construir. Acción de contraer o de contraerse.

Where the eye mixes construcción and contracción

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 10 letters in sequence. construcción runs 12 letters (CVCCCCVCCVVC) against contracción's 11 (CVCCCVCCVVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

12 ch
construcción
11 ch
contracción

Look-alike desk: construcción vs contracción

A purely visual mix-up. construcción ([kõnst̪ɾukˈsjõn]) and contracción ([kõn̪t̪ɾakˈsjõn]) 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 1 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 17890, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

construcción is recorded at frequency rank #802, classified as anoun, pronounced [kõnst̪ɾukˈsjõn]. contracción is at rank #17,088, tagged as anoun, pronounced [kõn̪t̪ɾakˈsjõn].

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 17890, this pair ranks #270,247 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of construcción vs contracción

Shared letters: cinortó. Private to "construcción": su. Private to "contracción": a.

"construcción" · 12 letters · shape CVCCCCVCCVVC  ·  "contracción" · 11 letters · shape CVCCCVCCVVC

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "construcción" for "contracción" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([kõnst̪ɾukˈsjõn] versus [kõn̪t̪ɾakˈsjõn]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "construcción" or "contracción"?
"construcción" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #802 in our Spanish list, against #17,088 for "contracción". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "construcción" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "contracción" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #270,247 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "construcción" and "contracción" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "contracción vs contracciones". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #270,247 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