costosvscustomTell them apart

Which to use

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

#3,038
“costos” frequency rank
#35,445
“custom” frequency rank
38483
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature costos custom
Definition Forma del plural de costo. Costumbre.

Where the eye mixes costos and custom

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

6 ch
costos
6 ch
custom

Visual trap between costos and custom

A purely visual mix-up. costos ([ˈkost̪os]) 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 share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 38483, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

costos is recorded at frequency rank #3,038, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkost̪os]. 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 38483, this pair ranks #169,777 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of costos vs custom

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

"costos" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC  ·  "custom" · 6 letters · shape CVCCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • costosccostos · cosots · cosstos · costoss · costso · costtos · cotsos · csotos
  • customccustom · csutom · cusotm · cusstom · custmo · customm · custtom · cutsom

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "costos" for "custom" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkost̪os] versus /ˈkʌs.təm/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "costos" vs "custom" - which ranks higher?
"costos" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #3,038 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

Visual near-miss handled. Browse the word pages or a neighbour when the next look-alike shows up.

  • Full dictionary entry for "costos" 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 #169,777 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "costos" 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 #169,777 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