costovscustomWhat's the difference?

Which to use

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

#1,763
“costo” frequency rank
#35,445
“custom” frequency rank
37208
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature costo custom
Definition Precio pagado por un bien o servicio, o imputado a la producción de este. Costumbre.

Where the eye mixes costo and custom

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

5 ch
costo
6 ch
custom

Visual trap between costo and custom

A purely visual mix-up. costo ([ˈkost̪o]) and custom (/ˈkʌs.təm/) 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 37208, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

costo is recorded at frequency rank #1,763, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkost̪o]. custom is at rank #35,445, tagged as anoun, pronounced /ˈkʌs.təm/.

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 37208, this pair ranks #176,541 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of costo vs custom

Shared letters: cost. Private to "costo": -. Private to "custom": mu.

"costo" · 5 letters · shape CVCCV  ·  "custom" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • costoccosto · cosot · cossto · costto · cotso · csoto · ocsto
  • customccustom · csutom · cusotm · cusstom · custmo · customm · custtom · cutsom

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "costo" and "custom" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkost̪o] versus /ˈkʌs.təm/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "costo" vs "custom" - which ranks higher?
"costo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,763 in our Spanish list, against #35,445 for "custom". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "costo" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "custom" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #176,541 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "costo" and "custom" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "casto vs custom". 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 #176,541 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