decovsduckWhich spelling fits?

Which to use

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

#41,289
“deco” frequency rank
#34,070
“duck” frequency rank
75359
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature deco duck
Definition Decoración. Pato.

Where the eye mixes deco and duck

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 2 letters in sequence. deco (CVCV) and duck (CVCC) run the same length but a different consonant-vowel pattern - the shape difference is usually the fastest tell.

4 ch
deco
4 ch
duck

Look-alike desk: deco vs duck

A purely visual mix-up. deco ([ˈd̪eko]) and duck (/dʌk/) 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 75359, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

deco is recorded at frequency rank #41,289, classified as anoun, pronounced [ˈd̪eko]. duck is at rank #34,070, tagged as anoun, pronounced /dʌk/.

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 75359, this pair ranks #19,707 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - among the most confusable pairs.

Orthographic DNA of deco vs duck

Shared letters: cd. Private to "deco": eo. Private to "duck": ku.

"deco" · 4 letters · shape CVCV  ·  "duck" · 4 letters · shape CVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • deco ← dceo · ddeco · decco · deoc · edco
  • duck ← dcuk · dduck · ducck · duckk · dukc · udck

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "deco" and "duck" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently ([ˈd̪eko] versus /dʌk/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
Frequency check: "deco" vs "duck" - which ranks higher?
"duck" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #34,070 in our Spanish list, against #41,289 for "deco". The two are close in frequency, so neither is a safe default; check the meaning rather than guessing.

Useful next steps

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

  • Full dictionary entry for "deco" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "duck" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #19,707 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "deco" and "duck" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "deco vs Deva". 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 #19,707 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