costosavscostososTell them apart

Which to use

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

#18,203
“costosa” frequency rank
#22,635
“costosos” frequency rank
40838
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature costosa costosos
Definition Forma del femenino de costoso. Forma del plural de costoso.

Where the eye mixes costosa and costosos

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 6 letters in sequence. costosa runs 7 letters (CVCCVCV) against costosos's 8 (CVCCVCVC) - the length gap alone is often enough to separate them once you know to check it.

7 ch
costosa
8 ch
costosos

Why the eye confuses costosa with costosos

A purely visual mix-up. costosa ([kosˈt̪osa]) and costosos ([kosˈt̪osos]) 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 40838, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

costosa is recorded at frequency rank #18,203, classified as anadj, pronounced [kosˈt̪osa]. 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 40838, this pair ranks #156,935 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of costosa vs costosos

Shared letters: cost. Private to "costosa": a. Private to "costosos": -.

"costosa" · 7 letters · shape CVCCVCV  ·  "costosos" · 8 letters · shape CVCCVCVC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • costosaccostosa · cosotsa · cosstosa · costoas · costossa · costsoa · costtosa · cotsosa
  • costososccostosos · cosotsos · cosstosos · costooss · costososs · costossos · costsoos · costtosos

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "costosa" for "costosos" ever safe?
No. They are said differently ([kosˈt̪osa] versus [kosˈt̪osos]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "costosa" vs "costosos" - which ranks higher?
"costosa" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #18,203 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.

After this comparison

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "costosa" 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 #156,935 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "costosa" and "costosos" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "costosa vs costra". 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 #156,935 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