cortosvscostasWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: cortos is a adjective, costas is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

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

#4,876
“cortos” frequency rank
#5,483
“costas” frequency rank
10359
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cortos costas
Definition Forma del plural de corto. Conjunto de gastos de un proceso legal o judicial.

Where the eye mixes cortos and costas

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

6 ch
cortos
6 ch
costas

Visual trap between cortos and costas

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: cortos is [ˈkoɾt̪os] while costas is [ˈkost̪as]. 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 (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10359, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cortos is recorded at frequency rank #4,876, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈkoɾt̪os]. costas is at rank #5,483, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkost̪as].

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 10359, this pair ranks #298,918 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of cortos vs costas

Shared letters: cost. Private to "cortos": r. Private to "costas": a.

"cortos" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "costas" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cortosccortos · corots · corrtos · cortoss · cortso · corttos · cotros · crotos
  • costasccostas · cosats · cosstas · costass · costsa · costtas · cotsas · csotas

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "cortos" for "costas" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "cortos" is an adjective and "costas" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "cortos" vs "costas" - which ranks higher?
"cortos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,876 in our Spanish list, against #5,483 for "costas". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

What to do next

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "cortos" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "costas" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #298,918 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cortos" and "costas" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "costas vs cultas". 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 #298,918 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