costadosvscostososConfusable pair

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

Which to use

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

#17,394
“costados” frequency rank
#22,635
“costosos” frequency rank
40029
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature costados costosos
Definition Forma del plural de costado. Forma del plural de costoso.

Where the eye mixes costados and costosos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. costados and costosos follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (CVCCVCVC). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

8 ch
costados
8 ch
costosos

Visual trap between costados and costosos

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: costados is [kosˈt̪að̞os] while costosos is [kosˈt̪osos]. 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 40029, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

costados is recorded at frequency rank #17,394, classified as anoun, pronounced [kosˈt̪að̞os]. costosos is at rank #22,635, tagged as anadj, pronounced [kosˈt̪osos].

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 40029, this pair ranks #161,315 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of costados vs costosos

Shared letters: cost. Private to "costados": ad. Private to "costosos": -.

"costados" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC  ·  "costosos" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • costadosccostados · cosatdos · cosstados · costaddos · costadoss · costadso · costaods · costdaos
  • costososccostosos · cosotsos · cosstosos · costooss · costososs · costossos · costsoos · costtosos

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "costados" for "costosos" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "costados" is a noun and "costosos" an adjective, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
Frequency check: "costados" vs "costosos" - which ranks higher?
"costados" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #17,394 in our Spanish list, against #22,635 for "costosos". 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 "costados" and "costosos" is sorted above. Next: full entries or other pairs that share a letter shape.

  • Full dictionary entry for "costados" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "costosos" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #161,315 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "costados" and "costosos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cortador vs costados". 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 #161,315 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