éticovséxitoWhich spelling fits?

Quick tell: ético is a adjective, éxito is a noun, so they fill different roles in a sentence.

Which to use

“ético” is an adjective and “éxito” is a noun - they look or sound alike but fill different roles in a sentence.

#9,750
“ético” frequency rank
#731
“éxito” frequency rank
10481
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature ético éxito
Definition Que pertenece o concierne a la ética. Logro o compensación satisfactoria de una tarea o actividad.

Where the eye mixes ético and éxito

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 3 letters in sequence. ético and éxito follow the identical consonant-vowel pattern (VCVCV). Same shape at a glance is often the real trap, independent of shared letters.

5 ch
ético
5 ch
éxito

Look-alike desk: ético vs éxito

These two trip readers on the page rather than in the ear: ético is [ˈet̪iko] while éxito is [ˈeksit̪o]. Spoken aloud the problem disappears. In writing it persists, because they share most of their letters but differ in 2 positions, and the parts of speech differ too (adjective vs noun), which is usually the fastest check. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 10481, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

ético is recorded at frequency rank #9,750, classified as anadj, pronounced [ˈet̪iko]. éxito is at rank #731, tagged as anoun, pronounced [ˈeksit̪o].

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 10481, this pair ranks #298,439 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs - a relatively easy-to-tell-apart pair.

Orthographic DNA of ético vs éxito

Shared letters: ioté. Private to "ético": c. Private to "éxito": x.

"ético" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV  ·  "éxito" · 5 letters · shape VCVCV

Frequently Asked Questions

Is swapping "ético" for "éxito" ever safe?
No - they are not even the same part of speech. "ético" is an adjective and "éxito" a noun, so a sentence built for one is usually ungrammatical with the other.
In ordinary Spanish text, does "ético" or "éxito" show up more?
"éxito" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #731 in our Spanish list, against #9,750 for "ético". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

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 "ético" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "éxito" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #298,439 of 323,831 scored Spanish confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "ético" and "éxito" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "ético vs etílico". Nearby pair

Confusion rank #298,439 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