cucovsculoWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#26,386
“cuco” frequency rank
#1,474
“culo” frequency rank
27860
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature cuco culo
Definition Nombre de diversas especies de aves pertenecientes a la familia de los cucúlidos. La mayoría son insectívoras. Muchos cucos son parásitos de otras aves. Conjunto de la musculatura de la parte posterior de la cadera.

Where the eye mixes cuco and culo

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence.

4 ch
cuco
4 ch
culo

Why the eye confuses cuco with culo

A purely visual mix-up. cuco ([ˈkuko]) and culo ([ˈkulo]) 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 a single letter - c in “cuco” becomes l in “culo”. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 27860, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

cuco is recorded at frequency rank #26,386, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈkuko]. culo is at rank #1,474, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈkulo].

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 27860, this pair ranks #224,804 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of cuco vs culo

Shared letters: cou. Private to "cuco": -. Private to "culo": l.

"cuco" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "culo" · 4 letters · shape CVCV

Known mistypes of this pair

  • cucoccuco · ccuo · cucco · cuoc · ucco
  • culocculo · cluo · cullo · cuol · uclo

Frequently Asked Questions

Can "cuco" and "culo" be used interchangeably?
No. They are said differently ([ˈkuko] versus [ˈkulo]) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Which is more common, "cuco" or "culo"?
"culo" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #1,474 in our Spanish list, against #26,386 for "cuco". 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 "cuco" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "culo" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #224,804 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "cuco" and "culo" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "cuc vs cuco". 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 #224,804 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